


Vegetto´s Story

by laserkid97



Series: Dragon Ball Multiverse [3]
Category: Dragon Ball
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-03
Updated: 2016-02-08
Packaged: 2018-05-18 01:18:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 33,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5892544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laserkid97/pseuds/laserkid97





	1. Vegetto vs. Buu: The Story Begins

Vegetto stood facing his enemy, his golden hair standing on end. He was sporting the two earrings that had enabled the merging of Goku and Vegeta, as well as the pair of gloves and boots of the latter with a dark blue tunic above an orange shirt tightened at the waist by a belt of the same color. There was a victorious smile on his face as he was thinking of the plan he was about to follow.  
'I must free my friends... But how?' wondered Vegetto watching the invicible piece of gum that his opponent was. He had thought of going inside the monster, but what if he couldn't go out? Buu, his fists clenched and an expression of pure rage on his face, growled:  
'Damn you! It...'  
'… shouldn't have happened?' finished Vegeto, with a sly smile, before resuming. 'Don't worry. I too am surprised...'  
Vegetto stopped briefly then spoke again, his smirk widening.  
'… that I'm stronger than you now, I mean.'  
Buu clenched his fists even more. A vein throbed on his forehead, threatening to explode at any time. Drops of sweat ran down his pinkish face. He whispered a swearword through his clenched teeth before saying out loud:  
'You don't give me any other choice...  
He concentrated and gathered his strength for his next attack. Vegetto watched him, curious to see what the monster had in mind for him. Buu contracted his stomach and felt a tickling sensation along his esophagus. Finally, he blow out his cheeks and half opened his mouth in order to expel a white substance that seemed to be slightly misty. He repeated the same operation four other times, only faster. Little by little, the floating things took the form of ghosts whose head looked like Buu's. Sniggering, they glared at Vegetto. Behind them, the original Buu exclaimed:  
'Take that! The Super Ghost Kamikaze attack!!'  
'I see...' said Vegetto, adopting a fighting stance. 'One of Gotenks' technics...'  
'You know that one?' statted Buu. 'So you know how powerful it is! If ever they touch you, it'll explode!'  
Buu made a big gesture toward the sayan:  
'Attack!' he commanded.  
The kamikaze ghosts rushed on the warrior that disappeared from their sights. He then appeared on their left, the arm risen in order to throw another attack.  
'I've something for you!' he screamed when he lowered his arm.  
Five genki balls left it to go crash against the 5 ghosts that exploded as soon that the balls hit their target. Once the steam cleared up, Vegetto said:  
'You really thought it would work? It's an attack made by a kid. It looks like you're in a fix.'  
Buu shouted in rage.

In the Gods' realm, Rô Dai Kaiô Shin was fulminating:  
'Stop playing around. Finish him now, you idiot!! Darn... He has become too strong to take the fight seriously...'  
'I'd have hoped you'd be stronger...' said Vegetto, his arms crossed on his chest. 'I'm not even warmed up...'  
'That's not fair, you merged!!' exclaimed Buu, throwing himself on Vegetto to deal him a blow with his elbow; but Vegetto blocked the attack with the sole of his boots.  
'So what?' retorted the sayan as he blocked other blows. 'Aren't you the one that absorb people?'  
After several blows dealt by Buu and blocked by the warrior's feet and knees, this latter said, amused:  
'Did you see that? I can defeat you just with my legs!!'  
At the same time, Dende was carrying Mr. Satan and getting nearer the place of the fight. He wanted to see who was getting the upper hand and to help Gokû if he could. At times, the vibrations from the fight disrupted his flight, but he paid no attention to it. Satan asked:  
'Wh... what is all that noise?'  
'It's Goku fighting.' merely replied Dende, pressing the pace.  
At that moment, Vegetto blew a very strong kick into Buu's face, breaking his noise at the same time.  
'You're so weak!' The super sayan taunted. 'You can't defeat me, whatever you do!'  
Both pain and anger left Buu's face and were replaced by a vicious smile.  
'Hey... do you like coffee candy?' he asked Vegetto who raised in eyebrows out of surprise.  
He threw his antenna toward the Sayan and a great ray came out of it. It reached the warrior head-on, warrior who became a candy and fell into into his opponent's hand. A smile spread on the monster's lip who cried out:  
'Yes!! I got you, you bastard!!! And all this because you were too sure of yourself!'  
Shibito's eyes opened wide due to surprise and despair as he watched into his crystalball and the oldest one was horrified.  
'You idiot! I knew it. All is lost now!'  
'Ahah! Now that you're a candy, you're helpless! I'm gonna eat you. It's over for you!' gloated Buu to Vegetto, now in his fist.

 

He was about to unclench his fist to eat the sayan but it hit his face without warning. Out of pain, he let go of the candy and put his hands to his face. The candy had started flying on his own and a voice came out of it.  
'Oops, I'm sorry, but it seems I still am too strong for you. Now, your opponent is the strongest candy of the world. What are you going to do?'  
Surprised, Buu looked up to the little ball:  
'What?'  
'You are still in trouble.' resumed the candy. 'Now that I'm small, it'll be harder for you do hurt me. Take that!!'  
And the candy threw itself on the monster's stomach who bended at the waist, winded, then it went up and hit his chin hard. Buu made a move to catch that candy that kept dealing him blows, but that was easily dodged It entered his mouth, went through the nape of the weakened monster and cut half his antenna in the process.  
'Oooh, I'm sorry for that. You said you wanted to eat me, so I went into your mouth, but it seems I cut you... So, do you want some more?'  
Livid, Buu gave Vegetto his original form.  
'What? You don't want me to remain a candy? It seems you have no trick left...'  
Shibito wiped up his brow and sighed of relief. Rô Dai took his cristal ball and yelled:  
'Enough of it! Finish him now!!!'  
'Well, I'm tired of it all. I'm going to end this. You've ten seconds to make your prayers.' the sayan threatened as he started counting.  
What are you waiting for? Vegetto thought. You can't do anything else but that...  
Buu had instinctively put his arm in front of his face. Vegetto had just pronounced 5.  
What to do now? I have no choice left, I have to absorb him... but how?  
Then his face brightened when he remembered that the piece of antenna Vegetto had cut was still laying down there. He made that part levitate behing his opponent's back, opponent who had noticed the danger but who wanted it. When he reached 10, the piece of gum spread all around Vegetto to cover him. He concentrated his strength in order to generate a shield just before feeling his adversary seizing him.

When he opened his eyes, he was inside the monster. He smiled as he wiped up a sweatdrop on his face. He shield had worked! Now he had to free everyone.  
At the same time, Buu was gloating. At last, he had absorbed every threat that was on his path. Nothing could prevent him from ruling of the universe now. He'd start with destroying this stupid planet! Then he'd fly to the closest living place and he'd destroy it as well! And he'd do it to every living being! Shibito was on the verge of despair: their one chance to defeat Buu was now ruined. He hit the ground but the oldest one told him:  
'He hasn't been absobed, look! Buu didn't change. Vegetto must still be inside...'  
With renewed hope, Shibito looked up. Perhaps all was not over yet...  
Defeaned by the Djinn's laugh that was echoing in his whole body, Vegetto was enjoying the success of his plan.  
'Now I can remove my shield now...'  
But a hint of hesitation changed his mind. When he was about to relax his muscles, and with it, his protection, something hold him back. A little 'what if' that rang at his ears managed to convince him not to do it.

For a few seconds, he went around Buu's inner walls when he came upon Trunks, Goten, Gohan and Piccolo, each being emprisonned inside a kind of pink cocoon that was attached to the both ground and ceiling of the maze.  
'Well, now I've to get them out of that cocoon and out of here...'  
Vegetto reached out toward the cocoons and started to charge an energy ball.  
'Come what it may... I'll start with Gohan...'  
The pink monster flew into the air and raised his arm toward the sky, a smirk of victory on his lips when something unusual disturbed him: normally, he should transform after the absorbing of anyone. This time shouldn't be any different! He looked down on his hands. What was going on? All of a sudden, he felt a tingling on his spinal cord up to his brain. He caught his head when he felt the stocking place for the people he absorbed grew warmer and started to fear the worse...  
When he changed, he looked at his hands which now were fingerless, such as they were when he had the appearance after he had absorbed Piccolo. Dumbfounded, he looked at his clothes. That had to stop right now!

Vegetto was done with the rescue operation and was about to leave the place with everyone when in from of him, he saw... Buu. As a miniature of himself in his own body. Surprised, Vegetto raised his brows. Buu asked him:  
'What do you intend to do?'  
'To leave with everyone. Why?' Vegetto asked back, sarcastic.  
'I won't let you do it!!' screamed Buu.  
The sayan merely reached out toward the fleshwall and said:  
'Don't do anything rash otherwise I'll make a hole in your body!'  
The pink monster smiked.  
'Well, do so, I beg you.' he sniggered.  
Vegetto furrowed his brows and dropped the two cocoons he had in his right hand to target the wall and threw an enormous energy ball. It carved a small tunnel that quickly closed itself. The sayan opened his eyes wide so astonished he was, then looked at Buu in order to get some explanations. The latter sniggered:  
'You're so small. What did you expect? You're here in my territory. Even with my weakened strength, I have the upper hand!'  
'Oh well, we just have to weaken it a bit more...' calmly said Vegetto, his arm around the link of a fifth cocoon.  
Buu's eyes widened out of fear and he yelled:  
'Don't touch that! Do not tear it off!'  
'You're affraid? Interesting...' analysed the warrior as he tightened his grip.  
'Stop it! I'd not be the same if you tear it off!!'  
By way of answer, Vegetto pulled a bit more on the cable. Buu thrusted himself toward him and yelled:  
'Do not touch iiiiiiiiiit!'  
Before Buu could touch Vegetto, the latter yanked the cocoon that contained the Buu's gentle part. Buu fell on the ground and yelled some more before he melted into the ground. Vegetto sighed, took the cocoon that contained his friends and took off quickly, looking for an exit. Buu's muscles painfully contracted, making the monster scream. Steam was coming out of his skull. He had the impression that a red-hot iron was against his skin.  
When the sayan finally found a way out, he went through it fast and was out at last. Vegetto took back his size instantly. Half surprised and half relieved, he put his four friends on the ground before sternly looking back at Buu. Buu was in the middle of the air twisting as if he was convulsing. He was screaming at the top of his voice, his hands on his chest and his throat. Apparently, the extraction of the cocoons wasn't painless. Vegetto admired the monster's changing of shape.  
First he grew and became a mountain of gigantic muscles, increasing his strength. Vegetto feared he had made a mistake but Buu grew smaller right then, his muscles seemed to melt, then they lengthened and his features became smoother. He looked like a child. And he was less powerful this time.

Once the transformation was done, Buu stopped screaming, he actually was gasping, and let his arms limp alongside his body. Once he came back to his senses, a sadistic smile brightened his face. He yelled, but not out of pain as before: only a being utterly consumed by madness could have emitted such a yell. Then he aimed at the ground with his arm and threw there a devastating fire ball. Responding immediately, Vegetto threw one of his own ball that collided with the other. The two balls disappeared. Sweating and annoyed, Vegetto bellowed:  
'You're out of you mind! Just you wait!'  
Buu wasn't paying attention to his opponent, rather he raised his arm in order to prepare a bigger attack. Unfortunately for him, Vegetto quickly went in front of him and put his hand one above the other, joined at the palms and threw an extremely powerful energy wave on his oponent. Buu was entirely burned and his attack was desintegrated. He glared at him but couldn't parry the knee kick that hit his stomach. Thrown farther away, he heard his adversary scream at him:

'Now I'm gonna end this fast!!'  
And Vegetto appeared right in front of him and put his hand on him. Buu felt a pang in his stomach then a weird feeling as if a part of him was dying. He opened his eyes and saw that his oponent had made a big hole in his belly. Dumbstruck, he didn't react right away. Vegetto repeated the same attack until all that was left of Buu's body was a tiny bit.  
'Farewell! I hope I'll get my revenge when you'll reincarnate into somebody that's good!'  
Then he destroyed the last bit with a wave of his hand. Finally the threat was eradicated. Vegetto sighed of relief. His hair became black again, as well as his eyes. He brushed his sweaty forehead and whispered under his breath:  
'I did it...'

'He did it!' exclaimed Dende, tears into his eyes. Vegetto put two fingers on his forehead and appeared in the gods' realm. Shibito and Ro Dai Kaiô Shin were there, happier than ever.  
'Congratulations, my boy.' said the older one as he patted Vegetto on his back.  
Now, it was important to resurrect everyone and to restore the Earth, yet the dragon balls were unusable at the moment due to the wish Bulma had made a few days earlier. Vegetto sighed of disappointment when his look fell on the small namek at his side who was trying to calm the 'champion of the universe' as much as he could. The nameks! Of course! Vegetto, filled with renewed energy, looked up at the sky and screamed:  
'Master Kaiô! Do you hear me?'  
'Yes,' answered the god. 'I just witnessed your victory over Buu. Congratulations my boy.'  
'Thank you master. But now I need your service...'  
'What's going on?'  
'I'd like you to enable me to speak to the nameks...'  
A doubtful silence followed this request. Then Kaiô said:  
'I'm not sure it's allowed...'  
'Please,' begged Vegetto. 'It's a matter of the utmost urgency.'  
'Very well...' granted Kaiô at last before looking for the planet of the nameks.  
A few seconds later, Vegetto heard the god:  
'It's ok, the link is done!'  
'Thank you master! Nameks, do you hear me?'  
'We hear you well.' said the voice of the chief in Vegetto's ear.  
At that moment, Satan put his hands on his ears and said to Dende with a panicked voice:  
'Kid, I'm hearing voice into my head! It's not normal!'  
'Hush!' interrupted Dende. 'He's talking to the chief of my people!'  
The earthling blinked before turning his attention to the sayan that was staring at the sky with a hopefull look.  
'Chief, I need your dragon balls once again to restore my planet and to resurect my people!'  
Another crazy guy... thought Mr. Satan as he was trying again to determine from where these voices were coming.  
'I've the dragon balls with me. We've increased their powers so now you can resurect as many people as you want! Tell me what you wish and I'll tell it to Porunga!'  
'That's great, thanks. First, I want the buildings and the landscape to be as they were before the battles. Then, I want you to resurect all the earthlings, except the criminals. And finally... I want to be two again, Goku and Vegeta.'

Vegetto saw that, all around him, the landscape was reforming, then he felt the ki of all the earthling flood him... He closed his eyes, waiting for the parting... Which didn't come. That's when he heard whispered into his ears:  
'I'm sorry, but the parting of your body isn't possible, Porunga isn't powerful enough.'  
Vegetto felt his heart missing a beat. He replied then, hoping he was hiding well what he truely felt:  
'It's alright. Keep the third wish for you... I don't need it anymore... Thank you for everything chief.'  
'Very well. See you later.'  
And the link was broken. How was he going to break the news to Chichi and Bulma? Above all, he feared to be a disappointment for his friends and relatives. Vegetto looked at Dende who had started to heal Piccolo and Goten and finished with Trunks. When they were healed, the four men got up almost instantly, looking for a landmark, something they could recognize. Their eyes fell on Vegetto. He smiled at them and held his hand out to them.  
'Cling to me, we're going back...'  
At god's, there was a loud hubbub...  
'If we're here and alive, it means we won, doesn't it?' stammered a hopefull Bulma.  
'It'd appear we are.' answered Yamsha. 'I don't feel Buu's ki anymore... On the other hand, there is one that I don't know... And it's a really powerful one.'  
'Goku-san's?' asked Chi-Chi, her eyes sparkling.  
Krillin shook his head as he replied negatively.  
'It feels a bit like his but... I feel Vegeta's in it...'  
'Vegeta? You've news of Vegeta?' screamed Bulma, desperate.  
'Errrr... I don't know... I don't really understand.' babbled the fighter.  
'I understand what you mean, Krillin.' reassured Yamcha. 'It's true it's weird. It's... familiar and... warm... as Goku but... It's also withdrawn and... melancholic... as Vegeta.'  
'Aaarg! I'm fed up with being the only one who doesn't understand anything!' grumbled Bulma.  
'So am I...' sighed Chi-Chi.  
'There he is.' exclaimed Krillin.  
All the fighters assumed combat position, excepting to see a new opponent. Vegetto, Gohan, Goten, Trunks, Piccolo and Dende appeared in the middle of the group.  
'Videl, my girl!' exclaimed Satan as he pounced on his progeny.  
'Who is that guy?' asked Videl as she pointed Vegetto, ignoring her father at the same time.  
There was a sheer silence. Then the Sayan spoke.  
'They used the Potara earrings.'  
'The what'? Asked both Bulma and Chi-Chi.  
'Potara earrings.' repeated Vegetto. 'It's a pair of earrings that enable the merging of two people... for good.'  
Chi-Chi fainted. She hoped she'd have her husband back. As for Bulma... well, she remained silent.  
Goten and Trunks looked at each other, baffled. To tell the truth, they didn't understand anything anymore. It was as if some business were for only for adults. Trunks decided to speak.  
''I didn't get it. Where is my father?''  
An uneasy silence followed the innocent question. Bulma momentarily came to to answer him.  
''Let me explain, my dear.''  
She took a deep breath, hoping she'd take in a little breath of courage as well.  
''Both Goten's father and your father used a earring to merge. Thing is, with this method, the merging is irreversible.''  
''What does 'irreversible' mean?'' naively asked Goten.  
''It means... forever.'' replied Trunks, frowning.  
Trunks glanced sideways at Vegetto, who hoped the ground would open and swallow him, so embarrassed was he. Inwardly, Vegeta's mind was telling him to act whereas Goku's, on the contrary, wanted to wait to be sure he'd do what was best. Behind them, Goten finally understood. The brown haired boy, incredulous, removed his hands from behind his head to ask:  
''So, it means that my father and Vegetta are that person?''  
He pointed his new father who answered.  
''Yes, that's right.''  
Goten sighed. It was true he was going to miss his father, in a way, but he had known him only one day. All he knew about him were the stories his familly had told him. All things considered, that new situation didn't bother him that much. Moreover, a few days ago, he didn't have any father at all, so he came off better. He smiled, happy to have found a way to come to term with it. But Trunks didn't agree with it.  
''It means that I... I won't see … anymore my...'' Blabbered Trunks.  
He felt a sort of emotion twisting his guts but managed to control himself. His father wouldn't have wanted him to cry in public.  
''Of course you will. Now he is your father.'' said Bulma, she didn't seem to believe what she was saying, but she was using enough of her acting talent to be able to convince her son. 'Even if he doesn't have the same look, and not really the same personality anymore, he is in him.'  
Vegetto, wanting to display the feelings that Vegeta would have, started to speak.  
''It's true I'm not Vegeta anymore. I'm not even Goku either. I'm both, and know that I'll love you as before. I'm your father forever.''  
Trunks nodded. Of course, such a piece of news couldn't be digested in so short a time, especially by a child of that age, but Trunks had the wisdom to keep the questions that were too embarrassing for later.

 

After an embarrassing silence, a well-known voice could be heard.  
''Congratulations children. Once again, you've won.''  
''Thank you, Kaiô-sama.'' answered Piccolo, stoical as always.  
''Enma will really end up hating you for getting people in and out of the underworld. The recent events overloaded him with deceased people. By the way, I believe he'll want to speak with you, Vegetto.''  
''What does he want from me?'' asked the afore-mentionned warrior, folding his arms.  
''I do not know. You'll go to him with Dende when you'll have time. Well, not right away because for the moment he's busy cancelling the files of all the earthlings that were resurrected... Bottom line is that he'll be busy for some time.''  
''Ok...'' replied Vegetto, his mind on the request he had made before the monster's death.  
''Now is the time for celebration, kids! You've saved the Earth! Why do you look so sad? Bring forth the champagne!''  
Behind Kaiô, Bubbles and Gregory wore party hats and were letting off fireworks. Kaiô was right, The most dangerous enemy of the universe had been defeated, why being so depressed? Once the connection with Kaiô was over, they started to talk about everything and anything, glad that the ordeal was over, and seeming to forget the incident that saddened everyone. Videl, the most curious of them all and the less embarassed, kept talking to Vegetto, which didn't bother the latter at all.

''But, how do you feel now, actually? Is there a devil and an angel on your shoulders, as in cartoon, or...''  
''Not at all,'' replied Vegetto, smiling at the thought of a Goku with a halo and two wings on his right shoulder and a miniature Vegeta with horn and a forked tail on his left shoulder.  
He took a breath and explained.  
''Actually, I've only one conscience, only one voice into my head. What happened was a complete merging of body and mind. I'll try to explicate: the two individuals that I was before are now one: me. I'm them, yet, I don't have much to do with Goku and Vegeta. I'm a very appropriate mix of their personalities and their physical appearances, all the more considering that they were totally opposite persons. I've memories of both of them, I know their past, but it doesn't prevent me from being one.''  
''It's rather complicated,'' said Videl, taking her head into her hands.  
''I know.''  
''But what will you do about Mrs Son and Mrs Brief? Alright, you're one, but each had a wife.''  
And with that question, she pinpointed a very tricky problem. How to deal with it? Live with the two of them? That was out of question! It'd be way too sordid... But how to choose? He had thought he was closer to Chi-Chi, but Vegeta's natural disgust for the hysteric housewife and the unexpected love that the latter felt towards his mate counter-balanced the whole matter. All the more considering that Goku held in high regard values such as 'Do not cheat on your wife' and 'Bulma is my friend, no flirting allowed', therefore it was not an easy task. In short, Vegetto was totally lost. He scratched his head thoughtfully, as Goku did at times, then said:  
''You know, I didn't think of it at all. I really don't know what to do...''  
He seemed so abashed that Videl exclaimed:  
''Did I embarrass you? I'm sorry, truly am!''  
''No, it's alright. I would have to think about it sooner or later...''  
He turned that question over and over in his mind. There were every reasons to be unsettled by the question. To think about what he felt when he was born only two hours ago... He tried to analize the feelings of his parents. As for Gokû, he was deeply in love with his wife and liked his best friend very much. Vegeta was the one that made the debate more complicated. He too was madly in love with his wife, but rather repulsed by Chi-Chi he considered as a stupid woman only good for cleaning her house. In order to satisfy is 'vegetish' side, he had to turn to Bulma, but the loyal and faithful Goku made a fuss in his head at the thought of getting to know Bulma more... intimely. Technically, both were against a relation with one woman or the other. Vegetto looked up and stared at Chi-Chi. A friendly face, smiling, kind... Then his eyes went to Bulma. Bulma was energic, funny, sweet... A bit violent on the side but well... Not more than Chi-Chi actually...  
''So, did you come to a conclusion?'' asked Videl, attentive to his inner debate.  
''Yes...''  
''Tell me.'' begged the young woman, eager to know.  
''I...'' Vegetto hesitated before he decided what he could tell her. 'Personaly, I feel more attracted by... Bulma.'  
''Does it mean that Vegeta loved his wife more than Goku did?'' wondered Videl out loud, surprised.  
She seemed unable to believe it. From what she knew of the man, and what she has heard about Goku, she would have thought that Vegetto would turn to Chi-Chi, but well... It's life.  
''No, no, it's not that!'' quickly added Vegetto. ''The feelings of both of them for each woman do count.''  
''So Vegeta's hatred towards Chi-Chi equals Goku's love for his wife?''  
''No, Goku is also Bulma's best friend, so...''  
Vegetto sighed because of the troubles he had to explain his feelings. How could he describe what the mix Goku-Vegeta had given birth to without becoming a part of such a trouble?

 

The good mood had managed to erase all hint of sorrow in the hearts regarding the double losses that they had to endure to win. Goku, they thought they had finally got back, and Vegeta, who had finally managed to be appreciated in spite of his special personality, were gone at the same time... Well, they still had Vegetto, that the most optimistic persons had described as '2 in one'. Those who were the most hit by the losses were Trunks, who had hardly got fatherly love, Bulma, who had discovered that she had stronger feelings than she thought she had, Chi-Chi, who had thought to prepare her husband's favorite meal to celebrate his return, and Gohan who, despite the fact that he had grown used to his father's absence, would have hoped to enjoy his father's presence more than 3 years (remember that it's the maximum amount of time that Goku had spent at home before he left for some years...)  
Once the embarrassing moment was over, Vegetto had been included in the group. The ones who talked to him were those who had known Vegeta and Goku the less, as 18 (despite the fact that she quite liked Vegeta as they were on the same wavelength), Videl and Satan. Some tried to cope with it, as Krilin, Dende and Goten, but the close family had a very hard time coming to term with the merging. Goku and Vegeta merged together, that was impossible! One was the most friendly person in the world whereas the other one was the stoicism made man (well, Saiyan)! That seemed so counter-natural!  
''So, you're going to live with us?'' asked Goten.  
Vegetto was taken aback.  
''Of course not!'' retorted Trunks. 'He's going to live at my mother's!'  
''But he's my dad!'' exclaimed Goten, outraged.  
''He's more mine that yours.'' replied Vegeta's offspring. ''Besides, yours was dead! You won't see any difference.''  
The young brown haired child sniffed loudly.  
''You're not gonna cry, are you?'' asked Trunks, rather annoyed.  
''But... I was happy to have a dad...'' stuttered the poor boy on the verge of crying.  
''And I just lost mine! You are gonna take him from me for your pleasure?!'' growled Trunks.  
''Boys, enough of it!'' intervened Bulma. ''Trunks, I forbid you from talking this way! Don't you see you're hurting Goten?''  
''Because now it's my fault? I'm not responsible if dad is...''  
He fell silent because he felt that his voice would shake if he added anything. Bulma sighed loudly. The good mood had finally replaced the heavy atmosphere, and now the kids were destroying it. On the other hand, not to face facts would have been of no use. She glanced at Vegetto as if to say 'we'll need to speak later'. He nodded.  
A few hours later, it was time to say good-bye...  
''Farewell!'' bidded Krilin as he flew away with his wife and his daughter in his arms.  
''See you!!'' said Satan and Videl, leaving with a capsule.  
''Just one thing...'' said Piccolo to Vegetto before he found himself facing the ones he wanted to avoid at all cost. ''I wanted to see what amount of power you had to use to kill Buu, so... Could you increase your ki, just to show it off?''  
''Er.... alright.'' said Vegetto, caught unaware.  
''Wait!!'' exclaimed Gohan. ''I want to fight!''  
Piccolo looked interrogatively at Gohan. It wasn't in the boy's habits to fight, especially without reason! Yet, the brown haired man's eyes showed determination, a deep wish to see how much his father could have changed during this adventure. The namek finally sat down, nodding.  
''As you wish.''  
The little group went aside, eager to see the show. Gohan took a fighting stance, as his father had taught him. As for Vegetto, he didn't move at all.  
''Come on!'' he teased.  
To see a face so similar to his father's, yet with Vegeta's smirk unexpectedly enraged Gohan who threw himself on Vegetto all of a sudded. Yelling, he dealt a blow with all his strength on his opponent. Yet, it was parried with ease. From there started a series of kicks and blows of which none hit its target. Moving as little as possible, Vegetto cancelled all of Gohan's tries to arm him. The latter got so annoyed that a white aura surrounded him. He blew an uppercut in Vegetto's stomach who bended. Thinking he had finally hurt him, Gohan smiled, but a hand caught his wrist. Vegetto looked up, pleased, and threw Gohan on the ground, smashing him at the same time.  
''That's not fair!!'' yelled the outraged son.  
''It's a fight!'' retorted his oponent.  
Gohan, annoyed to see that look of pride on his father's face, got up, ready to fight. The fact that Vegetto still was on normal mode hurt his warrior pride.  
''But transform!!!''  
''Don't need to.'' simply replied Vegetto, as he dealt him a blow right on his face.  
Gohan fell a few feet away. Piccolo, looking calmer as ever, was deeply impressed by the warrior's achievement. Gohan threw himself on Vegetto but a kikoha wave welcomed him. When the dust settled, he saw Vegetto with a victorious smirk and his arms folded. Gohan fell back, confused. He couldn't imagine that the man in front of him was his father. Not with this face. He went back on the ground and normal again.  
''I saw what I wanted to see...'' he said.

Everyone was very impressed with what just happened. The guests were looking at each other with look of admiration when Dende went near Vegetto:  
''Before I leave, I'll bring you to Enma.''  
''Alright!'' said Vegetto who had found a friendly face at last.  
He put his hand on the young namek's shoulder and they disappeared.  
To appear before Enma.  
''So it's you that increases my work!''  
''I'm sorry...'' stammered Vegetto, scratching his head.  
''I asked you to come to warn you: Earth should have managed on its own. You have broken an universal law by calling planet Namek.''  
''I... I'm sorry but... It was urgent.''  
''Make sure it's the last time!''  
''O... Ok!''  
Vegetto thought it was over when he remembered the wish he had made when he had killed his opponent:  
''Huuuh... As for my wish...''  
''Yes, I heard you earlier.''  
''I wanted to know if...''  
''And why would I do it?''  
Vegetto remained silent surprised with the rethorical question.  
''Well... because of all I did for...''  
''You?'' asked Enma who, for the first time since the conversation had started, turned away from his paperwork.  
''Well... yes... I still...''  
''No, it's not you. It's Son Gokû.''  
''But Gokû is part of me.''  
''Perhaps, but he's not you. Don't forget that you also have one of the worst criminals of the universe in you. Goku may have done great things, but Vegeta had killed as much people than Goku had saved. Maybe more! I'd have done it for Gokû... But for you, I refuse, period.''  
Disappointed and angry, Vegetto bade farewell to Enma and went back to Dende. They reappeared at God's palace that still bore the scars of the latest fight. Now he'd have to face the worst opponent ever: his familly...

Some dozens minutes later, the sun was starting to set, so it was time to go, but with who? Vegetto, who was no coward, decided to speak in private with both of them about this... complication. He signaled to Chi-Chi and Bulma to come over. Gohan made a move, but Vegetto commanded him to remain where he was with a glance. Once they were away enough, Bulma asked:  
''What's going on?''  
''Well...'' started Vegetto. ''It's rather complicated, but I had to think about what I intended to do...''  
''About what?'' asked Chi-Chi even though she already had an idea regarding the answer.  
''About you. I've both your husbands in me... So, I've to do something about you...''  
Bulma and Chi-Chi looked embarrassed. They knew they would have to face the situation, but so soon... and all out of the blue...  
''You could live with both of us...'' Bulma suggested.  
Vegetto frowned and crossed his arms, a sign that he was deep in thought. The same tics as Vegeta's, Bulma realized.  
''Actually, I find it a bit sordid... Of course, I feel an obligation towards both of you, but... There are too many contradictory feelings. At first, inside, I was in favor of Bulma,'' he confessed with sincerity.  
Chi-Chi grimaced, showing clearly how scandalized she was.  
''How so?'' she exclaimed.  
''Well, I do feel Goku's deep friendship and Vegeta's love in me, whereas for you, I do feel love, but also a deep contempt...''  
Chi-Chi seemed sickened.  
''Your husband really was someone not to hang out with.' she screamed, attacking Bulma. 'Do you see what he thought of me?''  
''That doesn't surprise me much...'' said Bulma on a neutral tone.  
Chi-Chi choke off with rage.  
''Well, calm down...'' vainly tried Vegetto.  
''So, what did you plan to do?'' asked Bulma, paying no attention to her friend's anger.  
''Well, to live more at your house, but also dropping by Chi-Chi's... From time to time... After all, I still am her husband... sort of...''  
''I still think you should live with both of us...'' said Bulma.  
''How so?''  
''Well, our house are quite far apart, there is a five hours time difference between us. At a given hour, you can teleport yourself...'' Bulma explained.  
''And when do I sleep, would you care to tell me?''  
''I remember that Vegeta had a rather short sleep. A three hour night was more than enough for him. When he was training in the gravity machine, he could spend days without sleeping...''  
Chi-Chi, now calmed, intervened. ''But, Goku-san really is sleepy-head. He needed a eight hour night, minimum...''  
''And you, what do you think about it?'' asked Bulma to Vegetto.  
''Well... I do not know... To tell the truth, I haven't slept as myself so far...''  
''We're going to check that tonight.'' concluded Chi-Chi with a smile.  
''Who are you going at tonight?''  
Vegetto reflected on it. His bottomless stomach, inherited from the two saiyans, growled. An olfactory memory came to his mind. The memory of a beef stew with automn vegetables and warm rice with some chicken skewers. Goku claimed his wife's food and Vegetto wasn't going to refuse it. Therefore he said with a stupid smile:  
''I'd like to go at Chi-Chi's because I'm hungry at the moment and...''  
Bulma was expecting it. Chi-Chi was a better cook than she was by far and Son-kun was a walking stomach. It was the proof that Vegetto who was so similar to Vegeta personality-wise did take after Son-kun after all... Chi-Chi seemed pleased. She always had known that all these hours spent in the kitchen to prepare nice meals would pay off one day.  
She came closer and showed a foolproof boldness by catching Vegetto by the arm as she used to do with Goku before. She smiled at him. Behind them, Bulma was fulminating. She was under the impression that Chi-Chi was stealing her husband.

Once they were arrived, Chi-Chi started to heat up the huge pans on the fire. Vegetto was drooling in advance. She set the table and they ate in a very good atmosphere, except Gohan who felt ill at ease. The moment to go to bed came. Vegetto, as a good father, told Goten a story.  
''So... Once upon a time, there was a prince on a faraway planet,'' he began dreamily.  
''What was the prince's name?'' asked the fascinated boy.  
''Eeeer... Vegeta.''  
Goten winced.  
''And so, this prince possessed a huge kingdom, and in that kingdom inhabited the strongest warriors of the universe. The kingdom throve because they were immensely rich. They worked for a very powerful man and they were his prime servants. None could defeat them...''  
''So?'' Goten grew impatient.  
''One day, he went on a mission with his subordinate Nappa and a promising soldier, Raditz. He thought that he'd see his planet, his family and his friends again, but...''  
''But?'' asked Goten, embarrassed by the sadness he felt in his new father.  
''But the man for whom this people worked actually was an unscrupulous tyrant. Without any warning, he destroyed the beautiful planet, killing every inhabitants in the process, except for the prince and his two allies...''  
''Why?''  
The question had left his lips before he could prevent it, and Goten regretted it as soon as he saw his father's face show a mix of sadness and hatred.  
''Because he was afraid of that people. It was a very powerful one... He wanted to decimate them all because they had the strength to rise up...''  
He paused, deep in thought. Goten remained silent, waiting and Gohan finally understood. He had truly appreciated Vegeta those past years, but not to the point of wanting him as a father... Yet, for the first time, he had understood what haunted him days and nights. Vegetto seemed to wake up and hugged Goten.  
''Goodnight son! Sweet dreams.''  
He kissed his second son's forehead. Gohan saw himself being pampered the same way, ten years ealier. Vegetto went his way. Gohan got him literally and hugged him, saying:  
''Goodnight to you as well dad, I love you!''  
To say that his father was surprised would be quite an euphemism. He smiled, happy of that change of attitude. In the end, Gohan went to bed in a good mood. He had found his father in Vegetto and, even if he had some things of Vegeta, this latter had good sides too, if more hidden. The merging had apparently canceled this embarrassment that prevented him from revealing himself. Gohan promised himself he'd like his new father for who he was, even if he'd need time for it... And he felt serene when he fell asleep.  
Vegetto woke up early the next day. Apparently, he had taken from Vegeta when it came to sleep, but that didn't prevent his Goku side to call him to order when his stomach growled loudly. He got up from the couch on which he had spent the night and saw that Chi-Chi was already busy doing the cooking. His olfactive memory told him that she was cooking pilau rice with fried chicken, roasted beef, fried eggs and sautéed vegetables with soy sauce. His stomach growled again.  
'Wait a bit.' Chi-Chi told him. 'It'll be ready in fifteen minutes.'  
Vegetto got up and stretched at length like a feline. Chi-Chi looked enquiringly at him. Apparently, it wasn't one of Goku's habits. Vegetto began to crack a few joints and put on the clothes he had removed for the night. Chi-Chi exclaimed:  
'You are not going to wear that again, are you? They're so worn!'  
'But I don't have anything else...' sheepishly said Vegetto.  
'Well, I've some old clothes that belonged to Goku-san's in the closet.'  
She rushed into her room and brought out her husband's old kimono.  
'There, it should fit.'  
Vegetto undressed without a second thought – after all, he was her husband – and put on the clean clothes. It appeared that they were a bit too big for him. Chi-Chi chuckled:  
'Goku-san must have become smaller when he merged with Vegeta!'  
Vegetto flew off the handle.  
'Don't you make fun of me, or else you'll regret it!'  
Chi-Chi found that reaction so comical, so Vegetish, that she laughed all the more. Hurt in his pride, Vegetto, red as a tomato, looked away and crossed his arms. The woman found that reaction almost cute. She calmed down and said:  
'Alright, I'm sorry...'  
'Don't care!' replied the sulking warrior.

Chi-Chi did her best not to laugh.  
'Come on, come to eat! It's ready!'  
Vegetto sat stiffly and ate more properly than Goku ever did. Goten and Gohan arrived.  
'Hey mom, hi dad!' they said together.  
'Hello kids.' greated Chi-Chi as she served their meals.  
''lo.' mumbled Vegetto as he swallowed a bit of chicken.  
The meal was quiet and the only sound to be heard was the one of the sticks against the plates. When a Saiyan eats, he doesn't speak. Once the meal over, Vegetto got up and said:  
'I'm going to see Bulma now. See you.'  
And without a moment's thought, he teleported himself.  
'Did something happen when we were asleep?' asked Gohan, curious.  
'It's nothing, your father is sulking because I told him he was small.' laughed Chi-Chi.

When Vegetto arrived at Capsule Corp., the sun was high in the sky. He came inside the building. Bulma was in the living-room. When she saw him, she rushed to him:  
'It's you! How are you doing?'  
'F... Fine.' stammered Vegetto, surprised.  
Now that Bulma knew Vegetto was more attracted by her than by Chi-Chi, she had decided to take no chance and so, to seduce her husband as much as she could. She didn't want to lose Vegeta once again and she found the Saiyan looked so much like him that she didn't see so many difference, except a softer personality and a lock accros his forehead. She asked him to sit in the living-room.  
'You must be ravenous. I'm going to fix you a meal.'  
Vegetto didn't mention that he had just eaten. After all, he had to eat for two, so he didn't see any problem with eating twice as much. They went in the kitchen. Just then, Trunks came in.  
'Mom, it's one in the afternoon, I'm hungry!'  
When he saw Vegetto, his face hardened and he went away. The brown haired man felt extremely uncomfortable. He was wondering how he could make his son accept him when Bulma told him:  
'Don't pay attention to it, he'll eventually admit you haven't changed so much.'  
Vegetto nodded but promised himself he'd go see him later. In the meanwhile, he wanted his meal. Bulma served him a very western meal: French fries and fried French beans with garlic and onion and roast beef. Vegetto felt enraptured by the smell of his food. He ate gluttonously in front of a smiling Bulma.  
'Thank you.' he said once he was done. 'I'm full...'  
'The pleasure was mine!'  
Vegetto glanced at his wife. She still was quite in shape for her age. No hint of a wrinkle, contrary to Chi-Chi, and Vegetto knew, thanks to Vegeta's memories, that Bulma never had recourse to plastic surgery. He blushed at his thoughts, each a bit unorthodox. How could one be two persons at the same time and feel so attracted by a woman while the other one had an almost repulsive effect on him? Bulma smiled as she guessed Vegetto's thoughts. She knew that, after a good meal, Vegeta was more inclined to do some things and it seemed that Vegetto was the worthy heir to his habits. However, he got up and said:  
'I'm going to see Trunks...'  
For the first time in her life, Bulma cursed Goku and his faithfull personality. Vegetto found Trunks in his room, busy playing with robots. He didn't even turn around when he heard his door creaks. He already knew who it was thanks to the ki his father displayed.  
'Trunks...'  
'Go away!' merely, and aggressively, said the young boy.  
Vegetto sighed.  
'Look... In spite of what you think, I still am your father and...'  
'No, you're not my father!' screamed the boy, interrupting his elder.  
Vegetto remained silent due to the surprise, but then, he carried on.  
'Yes, I'm. I may be Goku, but I also am Vegeta!'  
'You are nothing like my father.' persisted Trunks.  
'How so?'  
'My father doesn't have that happy idiot halfwit look! He doesn't have your fac personality either! He's two hundred times stronger than you, and one hundred times more intelligent! You are... You're nothing more than the shadow of who he was! I don't want to see you ever again, Do you hear me?'  
Vegetto caught Trunks by the shoulders and looked at him in the eyes. Trunks felt all the sadness and the anger his speech had caused in Vegetto. For the second time since the merging, Vegeta expressed himself through Vegetto.  
'Listen to me, you brat! I was obliged to inflict that on me! Do you really think that I had any other choice to save you? To be forever merged with Kakarotto was the last thing I wanted to do! If there had been another way, I'd have rather done it! I was forced to do it, for heaven's sake, because I didn't want you and your mother to die! I had resigned myself to die when I sacrified myself! Don't you talk to me like that ever again or I'm going to give you a very hard time, little squirt!'  
Trunks' eyes widened due to the shock. To see for a little while his father's stern look had moved him so much that he was shaking a bit. He sat down and cried. Vegetto wondered if freeing the vegetish wrath had been a good idea, but softness surpassed harshness for a moment and he took the young boy into his arms. The young boy who, in spite of his embarrassment, cuddled against him to fully enjoy the second embrace he had got from his father since his birth.  
After he had spent a quarter of hour to calm his son, Vegetto felt too many emotions and Trunks was at peace. Both were so embarrassed that they didn't even know what to say. People could see who Trunks had taken after! Vegetto cleared his throat.  
'Do you feel like a training session, as in the old days?'  
'Yeah!'  
And they left to go into the gravity device. Vegetto settled the machine on 50 times Earth gravity so that Trunks could move and then went inside. Vegetto felt the difference but didn't move at all whereas Trunks sagged a bit. Inside, they removed their T-shirt and started a little warm-up: jogging fifty times around the room, then one hundred push-ups and one hundred sit-ups. At the end, Trunks transformed to be more at ease. Vegetto did so too.  
'Such incredible ki!' The boy couldn't help but stating. 'I understand now how you managed to crush Buu...'  
'Do you feel like fighting?' offered Vegetto.  
'What?! You're kidding me, right...? You're too strong...'  
'Don't worry, I will not fight full force,' said Vegetto, going back to normal. 'And if you manage to hit me in the face, I'll take you to the park.'  
Vegetto fell silent due to a sort of deja-vu. Trunks rejoiced.  
'You'll see!'  
He threw himself on Vegetto and tried to let fly a right hook in the face, but it was parried at once. Trunks' long chain of blows were stopped as if it were nothing. Therefore he tried kicks, but those were stopped too. Vegetto told him:

'You're too predictable! I tell you that if you hit me in the face you'll get something, so you only try to hit me there. The other parts count too, and if you distract me, it'll be easier for you to hit the bull's eye!'  
As he was saying it, Vegetto kicked Trunks in the stomach. The latter contracted and put his hand over his belly as he bended. Then, Vegetto dealt him a blow on his nose that made his son fall a few meters away. Trunks got up, sobbing:  
'You hurt me...'  
'I'm sorry, it was to illustrate what I was saying... I'll still take you to the park...'  
Trunks smiled and staggered out the room:  
'Ouch... ouch...'  
'Go clean yourself.' commanded the Saiyan with a smile.  
'Ok, dad...'  
Trunks wondered how the Son family had reacted, but he was sure he was going to grow accustomed to that state. Sweating, Vegetto used Vegeta's memory to go to his former room and so, to his former bathroom.  
[[dragonball.png nocss]  
When he came in, he froze: Bulma was on his bed and she was wearing a transparent nightie as well as garter-belt. When she saw him, she had her most charming smile:  
'I was waiting for you, handsome!'  
She got up and crept up on her target, who was disconcerted and, of course, slightly aroused. She cuddled against the Saiyan who started at the contact with the woman. Vegetto was fully aware he was attracted by Bulma, but to act so soon revolted Goku in him. He swallowed and said:  
'L... Listen, Bulma... It's perhaps too soon...  
'Too soon for what?' she pervertedly asked, pressing herself a bit more against his body.  
Vegetto opened his mouth but no sound escaped his throat. She just pressed the more intimate part of his body. And he would yield to his low passions, he was sure of it, if she didn't stop teasing him. She went up on tiptoe and kissed him without warning. Vegetto immediately reacted. You want to tease me? We'll see about that. He kissed her on the neck. Bulma whispered:  
'Vegeta...'  
Vegetto stopped abruptly. Had he heard correctly? He let go of Bulma who had noticed her mistake. Vegetto, pale, whispered:  
'How did you call me?'  
Bulma didn't even answer.  
'So... since the beginning, you don't think that I'm a person with my own needs and feelings? Just as Vegeta, or as Goku, who would have changed a bit? Is that it?'  
Bulma almost felt ashamed. She knew that she was looking for Vegeta in Vegetto, just as some where looking for Goku in him. None saw three persons in this. She bit her lips.  
'Listen... I lost my husband in this... And my best friend. So, please, don't blame me for looking for them in you when you're the result of their merging...'  
Vegetto looked up and she could see that sad face that belonged to Vegeta, in the old day, and said:  
'I think I'm going in exile for a while...'  
No! Did he had that habit too? Considering the two individual and their habits of leaving to meditate each time something wrong was happening, he could be gone for months on end! She had to prevent him!  
'Think of your children!'  
They're not my children. They're Goku's and Vegeta's! Don't you agree?'  
It was going really bad... Bulma lowered her head, out of spite.  
'When you'll be back, tell us...'  
'Yeah...' said Vegetto. He took some of Vegeta's clothes in his closet and put them on – too short that time – then left through the window. Bulma got dressed too and went to the kitchen.  
'Mom? Where is dad?'  
'He's... gone...'  
'Already? But... He spent the whole night at Goten's! Why did he stay only a few hours with us? It's not fair! When is he going to come back?'  
'I don't know.'  
Trunks sighed, annoyed. He planned to get informations about Saiyans from his father, those that his other father never thought good to tell him, certainly more out of reticence than due to a true wish of hidding their history. He took the phone.  
'Goten, is dad at your home?'  
'No, why?'  
'He just left!'  
'Ah... I'll call you when he comes back, ok?'  
'Yeah, thanks Goten!'  
'By the way, Trunks?'  
'What?'  
'If my father is your father, it means we're brother?'  
'Hey, that's right... I guess we could say that indeed...'  
'That's great Trunks! I always wanted us to be brother!'  
'Yeah, that's really cool! Well, I gotta go, mom's calling me for supper.'  
'Alright... Bye!!'  
For two months, Vegetto had been living in a faraway place in the mountains located in the north of the country. He had no contact with civilisation and fed on what he hunted. This exile made memories of Goku's childhood, but also the awfull months alone on a hostile planet he had gone through for his training as Vegeta, surface again.  
Melancholic, he decided to go kill a giant fish for a part of his meal, as he had done when he had met Bulma for the first time. He undressed and dove into the cold and deep water. After a few seconds of apnea swimming, he spoted what he was looking for, swam faster and killed the fish with a well-placed blow. Once out of the lake, he added three deers, five dragons and two wolves to his dinner and started a campfire. The night was progressively falling around ten at night. The roasting of his meal reminded him the missions Vegeta went on with Nappa and Raditz. When he was a teenager, he also had to hunt his meal on the planets they were conquering for Frieza. Vegetto felt terribly homesick, even if, strickly speaking, he had no real experience of life. He had been born two months ago. Of course, it was an antenatal experience, but he had no memory of his own. Those who beseted him were not his. Those persons were part of him, alright, but not him. Why was he born? To kill Buu? But once the talk was done, what was he to do? The reason of his birth had been accomplished a few minutes later! So, once it was done, what to do? That question had been nagging him for two months... The two others fit this world and their respective famillies. He wasn't them. They thought their wives, their friends and their children would go to him as he came from them, but was it true? He wouldn't manage, or with difficulty, to be accepted as Vegetto. The other would always see either Goku or Vegeta. That situation upset him! He bite into a stag's leg. It was bitter, but he ate everything and left nothing, then he slept, once again, his head filled with dark thoughts.

Vegetto had been gone for two months. Trunks, Goten and Gohan did go look for him, but Vegetto hid his ki so well that they didn't perceive even a hint of his aura. The group was in despair.  
'What happened that day, Bulma?' asked Kulilin, hurt by the loss of Vegeta all the same.  
'Well... he left, like that. Without warning.. And... without telling where he was going...' stammered Bulma, embarrassed.  
'Yes, we know that.' said Kulilin. 'But what I want to know is what you did before he left. He can't be gone like that.'  
His perceptive remark was answered by a whisper.  
'I... I don't know what you mean...'  
'Don't play dumb!' exclaimed Kulilin. 'I know Vegeta well, and Gokû better, but if there is one that I know best, it's you. And you didn't tell us everything.'  
18 nooded at her husband's sentence while Bulma uttered less and less convincing explanations. She had been really attached to Vegeta she considered a true friend. She remembered the days when the group got together and she accompanied her husband because she had to. When he started laughing with his friends, she felt excluded. That's when she noticed Vegeta stood aside as well. That sudden likeness brought her close to that so secretive being.  
'If you don't want to be here, why do you come every time?' He had asked her once.  
'Because I accompany my husband...'  
Then he had sighed, but not one of these bored, or annoyed sigh. A sigh that one does when something is amusing.  
'We've a lot in common then...' had he said with his usual smirk.  
That sentence started one of the few friendship of the cyborg 18's life. That's why she couldn't do nothing whereas Vegetto had disappeared.  
'I'll help them.' she told Kulilin. 'I leave the child in your care!'  
Kulilin wasn't given time to say anything for she had already flew away. She didn't need sleep, food or even water, which enabled her to fly to and fro accross the northern part of the country for a week without respite. 18 knew what she was looking for: remains of camps. Thanks to her speed, each time she found one, she knew in less than a second wether it was normal campers, boyscouts' camps... and if there was nobody around, then it was suspicious. But once again, he resolved the mystery of that encampment in the seconds that followed the discovery.  
By the way, she approached the goal as she had found a one-person camp that was surrounded by so many animal carcasses that it could be none else but him. But it had been abandonned for long. Of course, that was when the others had been looking for him. Whenever they came within a 100 kilometer radius circle, even if they hid their aura, Vegetto detected them and left right away. In order to fly, they had to use a tiny bit of ki, and it was obvious that the fusion of Gokû and Vegeta couldn't fail to detect them. But 18 could fly at high speed without producing any ki... One day, she spotted a trail. A new fire, prints... He had been here very recently. Then she wondered: should she resume the search for fear of losing his tracks once again or warn the Z-team? She decided to carry on. She had always been a loner, it wasn't going to change now! And she rushed into the forest...

Vegeto was so close to nature that he had got rid of all clothing. He wandered in the forest without thinking of his personality troubles. For him it was now a bit clearer: he was Vegetto, new born of Gokû and Vegetta, heir to their memories. It didn't go further than that. He bent down at the river to drink a bit when he heard the sound of a brisk march. He turned around to come face to face with 18. She looked like she had spent day without eating, drinking or showering. When she saw that Vegetto was naked, she looked away.  
'Wh... What are you doing here, like that?! Get dressed, you idiot!'

Vegetto had the same sheepish look as Gokû's.  
'Nudity is very natural.' he made excuses.  
'Why did you leave?'  
Vegetto stopped thinking. For the first time since his departure, he was directly confronted with the problem.  
'I... felt out of place with you...'  
'And that's it?!' exclaimed 18, she was so offended that she looked back at him.  
'How so 'that's it?' said Vegetto, upset that she didn't take his problem seriously.  
'You say that you felt out of place, to me? 18? I don't even have a real name! I'm not even human anymore!'  
Vegetto remembered the conversations between 18 and Vegetta. She had to go through a lot to be accepted... He lowered his eyes, ashamed.  
'I had to find who I was... I live only through Gokû and Vegeta. I don't exist for you. I only am a kind of substitute...'  
'Though, Vegetto, you, of all people, know what it's to lose a loved one.' 18 said, seriously. 'They need time to adapt to your arrival. I have to admit that I too was looking for Vegeta in you. But if I look closely, there is no Vegeta and no Gokû. Only you. Give them some times to come to term with it. Sooner or later, they'll accept you for who you are. Then, you decide if you want to take their roles, their famillies or if you want to be a full-fledged member of the group.'  
Vegetto sat.  
'I've to carry their legacy, despite the fact that I'm neither Gokû nor Vegeta... I'll think about it a bit more... To be sure making a too hasty decision... Tell them not to worry...'  
18 allowed herself to smile a flew off. When she landed at her house, Kulilin let out a scream.  
'My God! You haven't been eating for how long? Are you ok?'  
18 smiled at her husband's attentiveness, he treated her like she was a china doll even if she was way stronger than he. She told him:  
'I bring good news. Vegetto will soon come back.'  
Kulilin sighed of relief. He had to admit that with such a circle of family and friends, it was a miracle that he hadn't died of a heart attack yet...

18 told the good news to everyone. They were delighted to know that their friend and relative was going well. In spite of a remaining anxiety, the tension decreased. Bulma had already written her apologies for her very... cavalier behavior. As for Chi-Chi, who hadn't got wind of that story, had already written her reprimand for Vegetto's so evasive behavior. During an evening, a familiar ki could be felt.  
'It's him!' exclaimed Trunks as he ran out of his house.  
'Him who?' asked Bulma, running after her son.

Vegetto landed in front of them. He looked more serene, and wiser too. His patched up clothes were really dirty, and it looked like he hadn't had a bath in months, yet, in spite of it, he seemed to be in good health. Trunks cried out:  
'Dad! Where have you been?'  
'In the northern mountains. I needed to... have a change of air.'  
'Dad always said that 'a change of air makes everything better',' said Trunks, laughing as he remembered the excuse Vegeta always used when he slipped away.  
Vegetto was smiling too. Bulma looked at him, confused.  
'We'll have to talk.' sighed the Saiyan.  
'I thought so...' answered Bulma, fatalistic.  
Trunks felt he will have to celebrate the reunion with his father later. Great! He would have time to call Goten. He hurried into the house to call his adoptive brother. Bulma rubbed her arm.  
'Listen, I'm...' she started.  
'It's nothing.' Vegetto interrupted.  
Bulma was taken aback. She stammered:  
'But... Well, I mean... er....'  
'You just lost your husband and your best friend. The loss of a loved one hurts a lot, but you hurt twice as much. It happens that I'm the merging of these two persons. So you found a way to find them in me. That's why you feel so attracted by me.' he said, perceptive. 'It's understandable. I'd have done the same if the opposite had happened. But it happens I'm someone on my own. You'll have to know me as Vegetto.'  
Bulma was speechless. What could she answer to that? Vegetto looked up.  
'Hey, the others are coming...'  
Gohan and Videl landed in front of them.  
'Dad! We were so worried! Are you alright?'  
'I'm doing well, Gohan. We'll wait for the other. I've something to say to all of you.'  
Gohan frowned but decided to resign himself to his fate. Ten minutes later, Kulilin and 18 arrived.  
'We have felt your ki, Vegetto!' said Kulilin.  
'Are you feeling better?' 18 asked.  
'Feeling really better.' answered the brown haired with a bright smile.  
He mouthed « Thanks » to the cyborg. Kulilin wondered what may have happened. His wife hadn't told him a word about these events. Then something suddenly clicked for Vegetto and he asked:  
'By the way, Gohan, how come you arrived so fast? And with Videl?'  
Gohan turned red as a beetroot and Videl, embarrassed as she was, lowered her head.  
'Actually... Well... it's...' stuttered Gohan.  
'We are an item since yesterday...' confessed Videl as she put a hand on her cheek. 'And we were in town today...'  
Gohan tensed up, as if he was hoping to get fatherly approval. Vegetto laughed:  
'But since the day I was born, I have been thinking you were together! At least, Gokû and Vegeta thought that when they saw both of you together!'  
Gohan didn't know where to put himself. Bulma and Kulilin were smiling at him and 18 was glancing at him look of dismay. That lasted for about five minutes. At that moment, Goten arrived with his mother in his arms.  
'Daddy!' he exclaimed as he landed. He litteraly threw his mother on the ground and pounced on the laughing Saiyan.  
'Calm down, Goten!' he exclaimed as he caught his son in mid-air.  
He looked around. Everyone was here. He took on a serious look.  
'Listen, I could notice that when you see me, all of you, you think of the two persons you lost in that adventure. I'm the result of their merging, but I'm neither of them. I want that we wipe the slate clean and start all over again and that we really learn to know each other. I'm going to live on my own for a while, we'll see what happen then.'  
'But...' Goten stammered, his eyes filled with tears. 'You don't want to be my father anymore.'  
'Of course I want to!' exclaimed Vegetto. 'But I want to be seen as Vegetto, not as Gokû or Vegeta.'  
Goten seemed to understand. Everyone admitted that when they were with Vegetto, they didn't see him as such. Krilin made the first move.  
'Well, Vegetto, what have you been doing for so long?'  
'Well, I thought a lot. Aside from that, I lived as a wild man. By the way, when 18 found me, I was naked.'  
18 blushed and looked away.  
'Don't remind me of that, please!' she growled.  
'Oh, come on. There is no need to get into such a state about it!' said Vegetto, laughing.  
Everyone but Kulilin laughed. Bulma interrupted them.  
'Hey, I bought a new flat screen tv! Do you want to see it?'  
'Fine, we know you got money...' 18, miserly as ever, muttered.  
They came inside and the group marveled at the size of the screen: it was so big, it took an entire wall of the living-room! Kulilin asked:  
'What of the image? It is nice or pixelized?'  
'See for yourself.' answered Bulma as she threw the remote-control to him.  
Kulilin caught it and was surprised by its size and its weight. He hefted it a few seconds then pressed the red button. The image appeared on the screen, more realistic than ever.  
'That's cool!' Goten was completely in awe. 'We can have one like that, mom?'  
'No...' replied Chi-Chi, dumbfounded.  
On screen, they could see a newcaster interviewing Mr. Satan.  
'So, how did you kill the monster?'  
'It's easy! When I saw all the damages he was doing, it went on my nerve and I released my power. I smashed him into pieced, like that!' he said as he got up.  
He made a sequence of basic blows and ended it with a side kick. Then he yelled and jumped as high as he could in order to kick the air and he landed with a backflip. He got up, rather winded.  
'And that... phew.. how... ouch... I got it... over with.. that pink djinn!'  
He finished his interview with his usual victory pose. The journalists seemed impressed.  
'Once again, Mr. Satan has saved the world!'  
Krilin, sickened, turned off the TV. Vegetto was gaping.  
'He said that he did all the work?'  
'Well, yes.' Kulilin sighed. 'It's always the same people who get the honors... Whereas others get all the work...'  
'And you let him do that?' asked a surprised Vegetto.  
'Yes. We'd get a lot of problem if everyone knew who the true heroes were.' said Gohan, philosophical. 'It's maybe best for us that Satan get all the honors, so we can be at peace.'  
'Yeah... I still don't like that it's that pathetic loser that is in the limelight.'  
'Do you want to take his place?' arshly asked Bulma.  
'No, I never said that...'  
'Boys,' Vegetto called from the corridor. 'Hurry up, we're going!'  
'Great!' exclaimed Goten and Trunks as they rushed down the stairs.  
Three months had passed since the discussion. Now things were easier. Gokû and Vegetta having been « dead » for about half a year, everyone had kissed them goodbye and had more or less accepted Vegetto as a person in his own right, and everyone liked him for his qualities. He had inherited Gokû's kindness and patience as well as Vegeta's touchiness and his so peculiar humor.  
'Where are you going?' asked Bulma.  
'To the theme park. We'll be back for dinner.' explained the Saiyan.  
'Be careful, alright?' Bulma motherly cautionned.  
'Everything will be alright, don't worry.' Vegetto smiled when he kissed his loved one on the lips by reflex. His loved one who was left... speechless.  
'See you tonight.' the half-prince hurried the astonished boys.  
Vegetto cursed that habits his two fathers shared and so, was transmitted. Oh well, the chromosomes were as unpredictable as the flip of a coin: a fifty-fifty chance... He flew off in order to avoid those inner maths debates, making sure his kids didn't fly away. In the air, he forgot everything. Wind on his face calmed him so that he unintentionaly smiled.   
Bulma, at her home, was puzzled. Was it out of ante-natal habits that Vegetto had kissed her or was it because he really felt like it? She wanted to speak about it to someone to unburden herself but also to ask for help. She certainly wasn't going to call Chi-Chi, she'd throw a fit. It was impossible to tell it to Gohan either... Kulilin wouldn't know what to say and such topics always embarrassed 18. Yamsha had disappeared from circulation since the victory of the Z-fighters... There was only one girl left with who she got along rather well, and, moreover, living close by. She dialed.  
'Hello?' she heard Videl's voice.  
'Videl? It's Bulma.' The manager of Capsule Corporation introduced herself.  
'Ah, Bulma! How are you?'  
'Fine! But I'd need some advice, and I thought of you. Would you mind coming at my house?'  
'Now? Hm... Very well, I'm coming!' said Videl after a microsecond of hesitation.  
She hung up. In the meanwhile, Bulma made coffee and put a garden table on the terrace, to be more at ease. Videl came fifteen minutes later, from the air.  
'Hey Bulma!' she greeted, landing.  
'Videl! Please, sit down, I made some coffee.'  
The young woman thanked her elder as she sat then asked:  
'So, what's bothering you?'  
'Well... A little while ago, Vegetto took the young boys to the theme park...'  
'That's great! He truly is a considerate father.'  
'Yes... But when he was leaving, he kissed me.'  
Videl almost choked. She loudly coughed and, between two coughing fits, managed to say:  
'Wh... What?!'  
'So, you see, I don't know how to feel about it.'  
'But if he kissed you, it means he feels something for you, right?'  
'Well, I suppose so, but Vegeta did that too, before. So I wondered if it's not an old habit that had reappeared.'  
'But, even if it's an habits or if he did it by himself, it does show what he truly feels!' asserted Videl.  
'How so?' asked Bulma, confused.  
'Well, he clearly told us that, even if he had memories of what happened before, he thought and moved on his own, so if he didn't like you, he'd not have done it! Then, he may have taken the tic from his ancestor, but his feelings would have made him do that!'  
Bulma thought about it.   
'Yes, but... What if...' she started.  
'If ifs and ands were pots and pans, there'd be no need for tinkers... With ifs, bees would speak... Do something, ask him, because if you don't, things won't move...  
'But... What of Chi-Chi?'  
'If he doesn't love her, don't ask him to force himself in remembrance of Mr. Son. Gohan told me Vegetto was at their home once every two days! It's not that bad, is it? I know many men who wouldn't do as much.'  
'I... suppose you are right...' concluded Bulma.  
'Of course! I'm often right, if not always.' joked Videl.  
They spent the afternoon together, talking about this and that. Once the night had fallen, Vegetto and the children appeared on the horizon. When he saw Bulma, the Saiyan became slightly flustered, but managed not to show any of it. They landed and Videl greeted them.  
'Well, hi boys! Did you have a good day?'  
'Yeah, it was...' started Trunks.  
'… really great!' finished Goten, throwing a fist in the sky.  
The two small boys laughed. Vegetto said:  
'You li'l monsters, go inside and take a shower!'  
The two boys raced to enter. Bulma asked with a smile:  
'They didn't give you a hard time, did they?'  
'Well, to tell the truth, I had fun too...' admitted Vegetto.  
Bulma sketched a smile. Videl, feeling she was in the way, said:  
'Well, I'm on my way! See you around!'  
She immediately flew off. Bulma made the first move.  
'About earlier... The kiss...'  
Vegetto felt embarrassed too, but he didn't got out of it.  
'I did it because... I wanted to...' he explained.  
Bulma threw a weird glance at him so he decided to give more explanation.  
'Actually... I had made up my mind for a long time, but you and Chi-Chi needed time to know me... So, I don't know if you love me... Really...'  
Bulma really felt attracted by Vegetto. In her mind, he was the ideal man: a mix of the two extremes that Gokû and Vegeta were could give birth only to a very balanced man. She said:  
'Well, I... feel attracted by you too.' She choose her words carefully. 'But it had been so short a time, only three months...'  
Vegetto sighed.  
'I know! Let's wait for a bit longer. You'll tell me what you feel by then... When you'll be sure.'  
Bulma nodded and, by a tacit agreement, they didn't say anything else about it.   
'So, my dear, how was your week-end with Trunks?' asked Chi-Chi, while she was cleaning dishes.  
'It was wonderful! Dad took us to a theme park! And he kissed Bulma.'  
A noise of broken plate could be heard.  
'What?!' his mother shrieked.

 

Bulma too was washing dishes, whisttling when the phone rang.  
'Hello?' she said, without thinking as she brought the handset to her ear.  
That's when she heard Chi-Chi's strident and not so friendly voice.  
'Bulma, what the hell have you done?'  
Bulma wondered for a few seconds if she was going to be deaf after that phone call. Chi-Chi was litterally screeching at the other end of the line.  
'Goten told me everything! So, he kissed you!'  
Bulma emitted something that sounded like a gurgle. That little snitch!  
'Yes, it's true.' she admitted.  
'And why had he done that?'  
'He told me he... felt like it...'  
'But... But... What about my family?' stammered Chi-Chi, on the verge of crying.  
'He won't leave you, don't worry! But I told him we'd wait a bit. It's still too soon and... I don't want to move too fast and get all of us hurt in the end...'  
Chi-Chi wasn't saying anything. Bulma was worried.  
'Chi-Chi? Chi-Chi, do you hear me?'  
Then, she heard the usual « biiip... biiip... biip... » Bulma hung up as her friend had. Worried, she dialed Vegetto.  
It actually was a victory for the two famillies that they never managed to win over Vegeta and Son Gokû: that he could be called at all time, so he always had with him (in his pocket or stuck into his belt, not on his ear and in front of the eye, which almost shocked him) a cellphone.  
'Yes?' said the Saiyan's low voice.  
'Vegetto, it's Bulma. I'm worried about Chi-Chi, Goten has been telling her things...'  
'Don't say anything else, I'll deal with it...'  
He hung up without telling goodbye and teleported himself on the spot. He appeared in front of a crying Chi-Chi.  
'Chi-Chi! What's going on?'  
She hugged him and sobbed.  
'Please, don't leave us...' she moaned.  
'But... Who told you I was going to leave you?' Vegetto asked.  
'If... I you date Bulma... You'll neglect us and...'  
'What?' yelled Vegetto. He couldn't believe that a woman so strong and sure of herself as Chi-Chi could have so childish fears. He put his hands on her shoulders and said:  
'Chi-Chi, even if I dated Bulma, I'd not neglect you!'  
Chi-Chi looked at him with hope filled eyes. Vegetto let out a deep sigh.  
'But how could you have thought such a thing? Three months is indeed not enough to get to know someone... Chi-Chi, you're my familly, I'd never do that...'  
Chi-Chi tried to calm herself, but couldn't get to stop crying. Vegetto let an even deeper sigh out.  
'Come on, stop crying...' he said, drying Chi-Chi's tears with the tip of his fingers.  
Chi-Chi had a tired smile.  
'You're right. What do I think of...' she whispered, a weak smile on her lips. 'Look, I'm going to cook your favorite meal tonight. Will you stay?'  
'In that case, I think I'll!' answered Vegetto, lured with the promise of a good meal...

Chi-Chi laughed and started the cooking. Vegetto sat on the couch and they started talking about everything: the day with Goten and Trunks, the exorbitant prices in the cities, the good weather of the summer, the weird animal Goten sometimes brought them from his forest trips... Well, about everything really, as in a more or less normal familly. Vegetto enjoyed those calm discussion with Chi-Chi. Even if she was a woman of the countryside, she really was cultured and open on the world. Chi-Chi enjoyed those discussions too. Her husband had never been the one to speak, so it was different than the previous ambiance of her house. One hour later, the meal was ready.  
'Wonderful!' said Vegetto as he sat.  
'Wait, you ill-mannered man! The boys aren't here yet!'  
'But I'm hungry!' protested the Saiyan.  
'You'll wait all the same!'  
Vegetto concentrated his energy on his sons. They still were in the middle of the forest. He thought to them:  
« Gohan, Goten, it's time to eat. Come back soon! »  
Gohan and Goten hurried back. They were too afraid of what Vegetto could do if they postponed the dinnertime. Five minutes later, they were there:  
'We were training a bit...' Gohan explained.  
'Mom, I found a turtle!!' said Gohan, showing the little reptile.  
'It's good, but let go of her! She has to live in the nature!' said Chi-Chi.  
'Yes mom...' mumbled Goten, disappointed.  
And the meal could finally start.  
Vegetto devoured everything that was within his reach so fast that even Gohan and Goten watched him, speechless.  
'May I have some more?' asked Vegetto; his mouth full, holding his plate out.  
'Yes...' answered Chi-Chi, at a loss.  
Gohan and Goten hurried up and ate before their father had eaten everything.   
'May I have some more?' Vegetto asked for the seventh time.  
'There is nothing left...' said Chi-Chi. It was the first time she saw anyone eat so much, and that was saying something! She had been living with Saiyans for so many years...   
Gohan looked curiously at his elder.   
'Dad, is there something wrong?'  
'No, but I'm still hungry... I feel that I'm hungrier each time...'   
'Go to Bulma, there isn't much left here...' Chi-Chi suggested.  
Vegetto got up.  
'I'm coming back tomorrow to spend the day with you! Good night!'  
And he disappeared.  
'Hey Bulma. Wouldn't you have something to eat? I'm absolutely starving...'  
'Do you know what time it is?' reprimanded Bulma before sighing. 'Come, I'll fix you something....'  
And one hour later, the same thing happened again.  
'Vegetto, are you sure you're alright?'  
'Yeah, though... It's strange...' said Vegetto.  
'Go see Dende... Mabe he'll know more about it...' said Bulma, worried.  
'Alright. I'll come in two days to spend time with you! See you!'  
And he disappeared without saying anything else. Once he arrived into the gods' realm, he immediately ran into Dende and Piccolo.  
'Dende, I...'  
'I know.' interrupted the small namek. 'I saw it from here...'   
'Do you know what's going on?'  
'Not more than you do, but apparently earth food isn't enough for you anymore... Since your birth, you have been eating more and more...'   
'But... What am I to do? I am not going to starve, am I?' exclaimed Vegetto, panicking. After he had gone through all these dangers, that'd be the most stupid thing that could have happened to him!  
!   
'I've an idea.' said Piccolo. 'Go to Korin and ask him to give you senzus.'  
'Great, thanks Piccolo!'  
And he flew off. Korin was waiting for him, on the edge of his platform.  
'Korin-sama, I...'  
'I know...' the cat interrupted.  
'News do travel fast, it'd seem...' mumbled Vegetto.  
'I've three senzu with me... Have one.'  
Vegetto swallowed the small bean and felt a bit better.  
'May I have another one?' he sheepishly asked.  
Sighing, the cat gave him his second senzu bean that Vegetto quickly ate.  
'I'm feeling really better. Thanks, Korin-sama!'  
'But what are you going to do if it's the same thing for each meal?'  
'Ah.. er...' stammered Vegetto. 'I don't know... Couldn't we grow more senzu beans?'  
Korin thought about it.  
'Look,' told the feline. 'I'll think about it. Go back home. I'll contact you as soon as I find a solution to your problem.'   
Vegetto left, worried about what could happen to him. Betrayed by food... Who could have guessed...  
It is in such occasion that people notice that hurry isn't necessarily the best thing to follow when we've to make a decision. Indeed, after his recent exile, Vegetto had wanted to have his own appartment until the choice of who he could live with was made. Of course, Bulma paid for it. He had choosen a modest place in Satan-City suburbs, he was rarely home anyway. His only furniture were a bed, a chest of drawers and a green plant. However Bulma had insisted, and got, that he adds a table and some more chairs, « just in case ». Once he got his house, Vegetto had taken advantage of it to meditate, happy to be alone. His neighbours weren't noisy, the neighbourhood was calm. What else? Except that today, Vegetto felt the weight of loneliness, and it crushed him. Fear twisted his stomach. The thought that he could die of hunger, which hadn't even crossed his mind until then, constrained him until he was left breathless. He had never thought of dying, in part because he was dead several times before his birth, but now he was worried about it. He wanted to stay alive to enjoy a normal life (which he had never done when he still was Gokû and Vegeta), and now he discovered that perhaps he'd not be able to! He strongly hoped that Korin-sama would find a solution for his problem. His stomach twisted and emitted gurgles. Vegetto sighed as he put his hand over it. Hunger was one of his greatest fear, right after hospitals. He decided to call Chi-Chi and Bulma to keep them posted.

Bulma was in the kitchen, making dinner for her son when the phone rang. She lowered the fire to let her stew prepare before picking up.  
"Hello?" she said out of habits.  
"Bulma? It's me." answered Vegetto.  
"Ah! I was waiting for your call! So?"  
"So, I went to Dende's palace and he told me he didn't understand what was happening, then I went to Korin-sama to get senzu beans. That's the only way to satisfy my hunger..."  
"But if the senzu are enough to fill you up, it's good news! All you have to do is to make sure you always have some at hand..."  
"How? Korin-sama has only three beans once in a blue moon!"  
"Did you ask him to increase his crops?"  
"He said he would think about what he could do..."  
"I see... You just have to... wait..."  
Bulma heard Vegetto sigh at the other end.  
"You know that I hate waiting without doing anything. You know who I got it from..."  
Bulma allowed herself a smile at that joke, in spite of the rather tragical situation. She wasn't afraid of death either for, thanks to her friends, she knew many gods, but to be separated from Vegetto gave her another reason to feel hurt. She offered:  
"If you are hungry, come over, I'll prepare you some things to eat..."  
"No, thank you... Paradoxically, I now have a knot in my stomach due to these bad news.... For now..."  
"Will you call Chi-Chi too?"  
"Yes. I'll tell her everything... She too was worried."  
"So hurry up! I've to hang up now, I've got something cooking!"

After the usual goodbye wishes, Vegetto hung up, gloomy and picked up the receiver once again to explain the same things to Chi-Chi. Her reaction was, of course, very violent, but Vegetto's gloomy mood tempered it. Once he had hung up, he sat down. That was at that moment that his stomach emitted an awful gurgle. His body was calling him to order, but he didn't feel like eating. Saiyans were beings that ate when they felt like it, feasting without pleasure didn't attract him much. Vegetto, on his couch, let his mind wander. He could feel the pain of his starved stomach throughout his body, up to his brain, getting him weak. He felt as if his brain was contracting itself in the search for stocks in order to keep working. The sound of his guts was so unpleasant that he put his palms over his ears, but still, he heard it in his body. He thought of Bulma's and Chi-Chi's offers but his limbs felt too heavy to move and his mouth felt too furry to eat anything at all. Gokû tended to weaken excessively if he didn't eat. Unfortunately, Vegetto had inherited of that other particularity. His phone rang. He got up without enthousiasm and picked up to answer with a gloomy voice the usual  
"Hello?"  
"Gokû? It's Kulilin! Long time no see! Would you like to come over for dinner? We'd just love to have you!"  
Even if he still wasn't tempted with a dinner, the prospect to see two of his best friends made him feel happy. So he eagerly accepted the invitation before he went to get ready and teleported himself in Kame House.  
He appeared right then in front of Kulilin, 18 and their daughter. He greeted them, smiling from ear to ear. There was nothing like visiting friends to relax. Kulilin said:  
"Let's sit down at the table now! I prepared a chicken in coconut milk, you'll see, it's really good!"  
Vegetto pretended to be interested not to hurt his friend. He'd force himself for him! He owed him that. He took a bit and put it in his mouth. The flavour of the meal was so exquisite that he winced of pleasure. His taste buds filled with the taste of Kulilin's cooking and his stomach asked for more. Spoonfuls followed one another. Kulilin seemed glad. At the end of the dinner, he confessed:  
"Actually, Bulma had called to tell me of your problem and I said to myself that even if you didn't want to, you had to eat. Apparently, it's done..."  
Vegetto had actually eaten more than a dozen dishes in a row. 18, being a cyborg, didn't eat much and Marron and Kulilin had normal appetites. Vegetto glanced at his friends. He had had a very good time that had definitely cheered him up. He came back home with instant transmission a few hours later and, even if he was still hungry, he slept like a baby.

The next day, as he had said he was going to Chi-Chi's, a promise made is a promise kept. He was about to go when he heard a voice in his head.  
"Vegetto, it's me!"  
"Master Kaiô Shin?"  
"Yes! Korin-sama had called god who had called Kaiô who had sent me a message regarding your... hunger problem..."  
"Oh, really?" exclaimed Vegetto, hopefull.  
"Go to god's palace, we're going to meet you there!"  
No sooner said than done. The Saiyan appeared in front of Dende and Piccolo. They smiled at him (a bigger smile for Dende). Vegetto smiled back at them, relieved that a solution had been found in so short a time.  
Kibito Kai, and the doyen Kaiô Shin he had taken by the arm, appeared beside Vegetto. He waved at them. The elder cleared his throat and said:  
"We won't stay for long. I want to be brief. Vegetto, in order to live, you'll need an enormous amount of senzu beans. A lot more that we could grow on this planet."  
Vegetto nodded. He was of course aware of it. Old Kai carried on:  
"That's why you'll need to plant them somewhere else."  
"But... where?" asked Vegetto.  
"Let me finish!" screamed the old god. "So, where was I...?"  
"At 'somewhere else'." answered Kibito Kai.  
"Ah, right, thanks. So, that's why you need another planet to grow there. An uninhabited planet and with an athmosphere that's suitable for the growth of senzu beans."  
"But it doesn't exist." said Vegetto, discouraged.  
"I told you not to interrupt me! Of course it exists!" Old Kai lost his temper. "Otherwise, I'd not be talking about it!"  
"That's right, I'm sorry..." mumbled Vegetto, sheepish.  
"We've already found a planet that'd suit what we need. She is at some thousands light-years from here..."  
"But how am I going to go there?" asked a panicked Vegetto.  
The oldest one glared at him. Kibito Kai put an hand on his shoulder to soothe him. His master's angers were never good omen. The old Kaiô took a deep breath before saying:  
"I know very well that your instant transmission allows you to teleport yourself towards a strength you feel and not towards a place. But it happens that I've at my side someone that'd be able to teach you to teleport yourself towards a place you can visualize."  
Vegetto looked up at Kibito Kai, hopefull. That latter nodded.  
"You'll come with me in the land of the gods until you learned that technic. But first we're going to show you your planet."  
Vegetto smiled at him. He was certain he could learn how to teleport in a short time. But the old Kaiô Shin interrupted his trail of thoughts.  
"Listen, a senzu bean needs one year to grow. So you'll add that time to the time you'll need to learn the teleportation, and to the time you'll need to find people who will help you."  
"One year?! It means I'll be hungry for... a year?!"  
"Well, yes." sighed the old man. "These things happen."  
Vegetto felt weary. A year, that was a long time. He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see that it was Kibito Kai that was giving him his support.  
"Listen, we need to hurry." said his friend. "Let's go now. The sooner it's done, the better it's."  
"Alright, but I've to tell my familly first..."  
"I agree!" exclaimed Kibito Kai with a wide smile. "I wanted to see Son Gohan again."  
"Dende, Piccolo, Old Kai, do you want to come with us?" offered the Saiyan.  
"I'd like to!" said the young Namek.  
"So do I," said Piccolo, with a tone as neutral as ever.  
Vegetto asked the group to put their hands on him so that they could go there with the instant transmission. They appeared beside Bulma.

"Hi." greeted Vegetto.  
"Vegetto, why did you bring all these people along?" asked the earthling woman. "I haven't prepared anything!"  
"Can you call Chi-Chi, please? I have something to tell everyone..." answered a serious Vegetto.  
Bulma went to the phone and dialed without saying anything.  
"Hello?" said a sleepy voice at the other end.  
"Hey Chi-Chi, it's Bulma."  
"Bulma, do you know what time it is?" asked Chi-Chi, suddenly more threatening.  
"Look come as soon as possible, Vegetto has something he wants to tell us."  
"… Alright, coming." said Chi-Chi, instantly more awake.  
Half an hour later, she was here with her tuxedo-clad sons.  
"Chi-Chi, you're among friends, it's not a weeding." joked Bulma.  
"I want my sons to be presentable." retorted the matron. "And I did well." she concluded. "The great gods of the universe are with us, it's an honor!"  
Bulma burst out of laughing when she saw Gohan's face, red as a beetrot. They all went in the living-room.  
"Listen, I'll have to leave for a while..." announced Vegetto.  
"What?!" everyone exclaimed.  
"I'll learn a new technic in gods' realm. In order to survive, I'll have to plant senzu beans on another planet." he explained.  
"But how are you going to do it?" asked Trunks/  
"Well, I'm going to hire people, I think..."  
Gohan googled at him. Vegetto said:  
"I'll need to think more carefully about it.. But I'll eventually find something!"   
"Have you thought of aliens?"  
"I'll consider it after the first harvests..."  
Bulma sighed. She wasn't really fond of the idea, but it that was the only way, then so be it. Chi-Chi said:  
"But do you have notions of farming?"  
"Well, you did do some farming with Gokû. I remember how to plant, sprinkle, extract..."  
"Yes, but you don't know the methods that enable to get the best quality and quantity possible, do you?"  
"Er..." merely replied Vegetto, scratching his head.  
"I'll tell you everything you'd have to know about it, Vegetto. You're lucky to have me around because you'd not have managed otherwise."

Bulma glared at Chi-Chi.  
"Everyone can do that." the director of Capsule Corporation said, haughty.  
"Because you know anything about fallow lands and harvest?"   
Bulma fell silence because she simply didn't know. Vegetto calmed things down.  
"Come on, it's nothing. Chi-Chi will explain it to me when I know how to teleport. In the meanwhile, please, don't fight one another."  
Both women sighed. Kibito Kai hurried Vegetto.  
"We have to hurry. I don't want to turn the 'good byes' short, but your days are numbered, my friend."  
Vegetto looked sadly at his familly and waved at them one last time before he disappeared with the two gods. Bulma said:  
"Do you think he'll learn fast?"  
"Yes," answered Chi-Chi. "He has Gokû-sa's and Vegeta's genes, so it's certain he'll."  
And the whole familly let out a deep sigh, praying Dende that Vegetto would manage it.


	2. Story Mode

Vegetto, sitting on the ground, was listening carefully to Kibito Kai who was trying to explain him how his technique worked.  
'It's really similar to your instant transmission technique,' was explaining the god. 'Tell me what you do when you use it.'  
'Well, I concentrate to find the ki I want to go to, I locate it then I visualize myself at that person's side...' answered Vegetto, his arms crossed and his looking up at the sky, what he usually did when he was deep in thought. 'And finally, I concentrate my energy to hurl myself near that ki...'  
'It's almost the same process here.' Kibito Kai smiled. 'You won't take long to learn that technique. I give you one week at most...'  
'Hmph!' said hautily Vegetto. 'Three days will be more than enough.'  
'I trust you on that.' laughed Kibito Kai, aware of the zeal his friend used to learn techniques, especially the most interesting ones. 'First you have to meditate,' he carried on. 'As it's a technique based on mental strength, you have to get prepared.'  
Vegetto smiled at the god and closed his eyes. His features relaxed, as well as the muscles of his body. Kibito Kai understood that the Saiyan had emptied his mind. To not cause any interference, he left without making a noise to meditate on his own. A few hours later, Vegetto felt that his mental was full force. He opened his eyes, determined to train. Kibito Kai, having noticed it, got up and explained to him:  
'To move with your instant transmission, you focused on a strength, now you have to visualize a place. Do you see the rock over there?' asked the god, pointing a huge rock, some meters away. 'You have to go beside it. Take your time.'  
Vegetto nodded and closed his eyes once again. The memory of the rock in his mind was rather clear. He saw himself in his current position at the side of the rock. Then he started channeling his energy in his brain and at the tips of his fingers he placed on his forehead. He hurled his body and opened his eyes to see... that he hadn't moved at all.  
'I wasn't expecting you to succeed straight off, don't worry.'  
Vegetto sighed, disappointed. At that moment, Kibito Kai asked:  
'By the way, I always wondered, how do you do to come back home. It's a place after all. You don't think of your appartment, do you?'  
'Actually, I think of my neighboor's ki.' confessed Vegetto.  
The god smiled at his friend's cleverness, the Saiyan smiled back at him then he closed his eyes once again to absorb himself in his training. A few hours later, a growl got him out of his trance. The god looked at him inquiringly, to what he answered with an embarassed smile and a shy  
'I'm hungry...'  
Kibito Kai sighed due to the humour of the situation, then he got up and pointed a direction to Vegetto.  
'Over there, there is a small cabin filled with what you need to cook. Do you need me for it?'  
Vegetto fell silent a few seconds. He had never cooked alone, it always was either Bulma or Chi-Chi that prepared his meals! He was about to accept, but his pride gained the upper hand.  
'No, thanks. I'll manage.'  
Vegetto flew towards the direction Kibito Kai had indicated. He found the afore-mentioned cabin but he fell silent/remained quiet in front of the food stocked in here. He had never prepared a meal in his entire life. As he didn't want to go ask a god for advice regarding cooking, he took some food in the freezer and devoured all the food in their initial state. Resigned and frustrated, he came back from where he went and sat back. He tried to empty his mind, but his stomach painfully made itself heard. And he was going to endure that for a year? Vegetto frowned, expecting difficult days ahead. Kibito Kai was worried: he could feel his student’s trouble’. He opened an eye to see his friend, but thought better of it and quickly closed it. They had to concentrate to make sure that the Saiyan learn the technique as soon as possible. It was of course not a matter of physical strength because Kibito Kai readily admitted that he was way weaker than his friend. Vegetto certainly shouldn't be completely at peace.The next day, Vegetto was still meditating. The god had asked that their food cabin, that had been emptied the previous day, be filled anew. The Saiyan indeed didn't feel at ease. He had wanted to have a talk with Bulma and Chi-Chi for quite some time now. He wanted to say to Chi-Chi that he wanted to get closer to Bulma and tell the latter that he wanted to live with her rather than on his own. Yet, the fact he didn't want to rush things held him back. That situation weighed heavily on him and it was impossible to meditate with a mind full of thoughts. Annoyed, he shook his head. These feelings were starting to consume him. He decided that, as soon as he'd know how to execute that damned technique, he was going to clear that situation. That resolution freed him of the burden that was holding him back. He concentrated on the rock that his mentor had showed him the previous day. He saw and felt it more than clearly in his mind. He had to go there now. He could feel his energy hurling him forwards. Then, all was meant to happen as during the Instant Translocation. He moved through space in his mind and he opened his eyes. He still haven't moved. But what was he supposed to do to be able to move?! The god, having felt his friend's weariness, got up and offered:  
''Do you need help? A tip?''  
''No, I should be able to do it with what you told me...'' answered Vegetto as he relaxed his muscles.

Kibito Kai knew why he didn't want any extra help. Cell had learned his Instant Translocation technique just by looking him do it once, and Buu had done the same. He blamed himself for not being able to be as good as these two incredible fighters. The Saiyan loudly breathed out. He channeled his energy as much as he could. It wasn't that hard. Instead of going towards a strength, he had to go towards a place. He had to find a link. That rock was in his mind. He had watched it for so long that he was starting to know each crack and the appearance of even the smallest blade of grass. But to see this place perhaps wasn't enough. Perhaps he had to feel it. It was probably the difference between these two techniques. Anybody could visualise a place. What mattered was to feel it, as one could feel a ki to put his own beside it. He placed his index and his middle finger on his forehead in order to increase his concentration. That rock was a living being. Around it, there was grass, on it, there was moss and in it, there was several kinds of creatures. Vegetto felt all these entities that had gathered in the place where he was desperately trying to go. Now he had to throw his ki towards that rock. His features hardened under the effort. Tense, he frowned then... opened his eyes. He noticed that he had moved forwards about ten meters. Kibito Kai exclaimed:  
''You finally found the way to do it! Go back to where you were before and practice until you have acquired more accuracy.''  
Vegetto got up and walked to where he came from, so happy that he was smiling from ear to ear. He didn't sit down, preferring staying up for that second try.  
Kibito Kai was really pleased with his student. With each try, he was getting nearer and nearer. If he kept practicing, he would certainly have mastered that technique the day after, as he had said. Vegetto went to empty the pantry during the day. The young god said to himself that his student would perhaps had learned that technique earlier if he hadn't been hungry. Especially considering that that technique needed a lot of energy. The next day, Vegetto could teleport himself only 5 meters away from his target.  
''Try to appear less than a meter away.'' said Kibito Kai. ''When you succeed, we'll try something harder.''  
Vegetto concentrated with all his might. He placed his two fingers on his forehead and did it. He moved back suddenly, surprised to feel cold stone against his elbow. Finally, he smiled broadly, happy to have reached his goal. Kibito Kai congratulated him.  
''That's great Vegetto! Now you have to manage to move towards a place that you don't see. You remember that food cabin? You have to manage to place yourself less than three meters away from it.''  
''Cough, easy!'' boasted the Saiyan.  
He used the memories he had of the pantry to feel it and disappeared immediately. He found himself a good dozen metter away from the cabin. Disappointed, he teleported himself back to the rock. Kibito Kai smiled.  
''Don't try to go too fast. Take your time. When you'll be less than three meters from the cabin, call me and we'll try something harder.''  
''Meaning?''  
''You'll try to go some place you know and that's not in the realm of gods. At your place, for instance.''  
Vegetto swallowed. His troubles were far from over...  
''You still haven't managed?'' asked Kibito Kai to Vegetto as the latter was coming back from another try.  
''Four meters...'' mumbled the Saiyan with rage.  
''Think positive, you're getting close.'' said the god.  
''It still isn't the limit you gave me. I don't feel the cabin as much as I did the rock.'' moaned Vegetto, infuriated.  
''It's normal, you don't see it.'' explained Kibito Kai. ''You'll eventually succeed.''  
''I hope so! I've been training for a day!'' exclaimed Vegetto.  
Then he concentrated again. The exercise turned out to be much harder than what he had thought. With the Instant Translocation technique, the distance didn't matter, but now, the farther the subject, the more he used his energy and the hungrier he was. He tried again, but again fell four meter away from the cabin. He got back to his starting point and noticed that Kibito Kai was looking at him with concern in his eyes.  
''You're probably hungry.'' he guessed. ''Perhaps you should have a break. I'm going to bring you something to eat.''  
''No, I will succeed.'' interrupted the proud warrior. ''I'll be constantly hungry for a year, so I've to get used to it... And the three days are almost over and I'd not have managed it... So I've to do it and then I'll have a lunch break.''  
Kibito Kai respected the choice of the Saiyan and sat back, legs and arms folded, to meditate. Vegetto disappeared and reappeared, closer to his goal.

I'll do it... he thought. I'm closer each time... I have to do it.  
He put his fingers on his forehead, but at the time he was about to disappear, he felt faint. His stomach was aching from hunger. He needed nutrients, but he didn't want to tell it to Kibito Kai when he just had turned down his offer. He was going to learn to live with it. He used again some of his energy, put his fingers at his forehead and then, all went black.  
Vegetto painfully opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was a worried Kibito Kai above him. He blinked several times to restore his eyesight. All that was around him was blurry. Kibito Kai sighed of relief when he noticed his student had finally awoken.  
''Vegetto, do you feel alright?''  
The Saiyan groaned and put his right hand on his forehead. On top of having his stomach aching from hunger, he had a headache. He noticed that Kibito Kai had brought at least seventeen different copious dishes. Vegetto looked inquiringly at his teacher who answered to him by giving him noddles sautéed with chicken.  
''Please, eat a bit! It's not with pushing back your limits that you'll manage to master the technique faster!''  
Vegetto didn't answer right away, as he couldn't find his words. Then he got up and took the bowl, whispering a low 'thank you'. He gulped down the dishes in no time. He felt way better, even if there still was a hole into his stomach. Kibito Kai told him:  
''I bet you'll be more accurate.''  
And he won his bet. Vegetto appeared two meters away from the cabin. He came back satisfied.  
''Now, you can choose. Either we rest during what's left of the day, and we get going on the hard part tomorrow, or you feel strong enough to give it some tries.''  
''We can give it some tries!'' boasted Vegetto.  
''As you wish. You have to manage to appear in your livin-room. It's much harder as you need to go to another world entirely. Concentrate well if you don't want to have some... troubles.''  
''Of what kind?''  
''For instance, to find yourself in your neighbor's bathroom.''  
''Oh, right indeed...'' mumbled Vegetto, less sure of himself all of a sudden.  
He concentrated on his apartment. His sofa, his coffee table, his dishes that piled up on it, his brown fitted carpet... He looked for something living. He focused on his green plant. He needed to have even the least details of the place in his head, at the risk of failing. Kibito Kai felt him exuding ki, betraying the extrem contentration of his student when Vegetto suddenly opened his eyes and brought his fingers to his forehead before disappearing... To reappear a bit farther a few seconds later. The god, curious to know where Vegetto had appeared, looked inquiringly had him, to what the Saiyan answered:  
''I ended up in the corridor.''

''It's good all the same!'' congratulated Kibito Kai. ''You still don't have the required accuracy, but it's not bad. You managed to teleport yourself there without any incident in such a short time!''  
''No, it's not good!'' moaned Vegetto. ''I take all day to focus on a place and to concentrate my energy before disappearing, and I'm not even able to do it well!''  
Vegetto furiously freed his ki. His hair stood a bit more on end and got a golden shade. His sudden increase of energy freed great wind gusts throwing Kibito Kai away. The super Saiyan yelled:  
''I'm fed up with being in my genitors' shadows, fed up with these fucking responsibilities that I have, fed up with doing my head in spending time equally with my families, fed up with sitting between two stools, and above all I'm fed up with that lack of energy!''

He went over the Super Saiyan to reach the level above it. His aura became golder than ever, blinding the god who was panicking in front of the uncontrollable anger of his disciple who was still yelling his feelings:  
''I want to live at peace, damn it. I don't even had time to do anything bad in that fucking life! I don't deserve to go through all that! All I want is to chuck everything out! I'm fed up to the back teeth with troubles, families and raging hunger!''  
He finished with a long scream as he was increasing his strength to a level still unequaled as he attained super Saiyan 2. Kibito Kai couldn't believe his eyes. Vegetto's power was phenomenal. He had never felt anything like that! He realized that he was uncontrollably shaking, deeply impressed. He fought to get up and got near Vegetto. This latter glared at him, reflecting his mood, angry to say the least.  
''L... Listen, Vegetto... It... Calm down, ok?'' stammered Kibito Kai. ''It's not bad if you don't do it straight off, it's actually normal, but please, control yourself...''  
Vegetto looked down. The vessel on his forehead beating hard. The Saiyan bend his elbow and said:  
''I... can't bear that situation anymore...''  
''You need to rest, my friend. Relax and let's go to bed. It's not bad if you haven't mastered the technique in three days. Four would be impressive all the same!''  
Kibito needed more than fifteen years to master it... thought the sulking god.  
Vegetto relaxed his muscles and his hairs went back to black and sagged a bit, as his aura clearly fell in intensity. Finally, he went to the place where he have been sleeping the past three days without saying a word and lay down. Kibito Kai, still under the impact of his student's anger, lay down as well, his mind preoccupied.  
The next day, when Kibito Kai woke up, he noticed that the Saiyan wasn't here anymore. He tried to find his ki in order to join him, but in vain. Vegetto's ki had literally disappeared from gods' realm. Panicked, he was about to call the doyen of the gods when Vegetto's ki reappeared. He flew at top speed towards him. Vegetto was standing, and smiling. When he saw his teacher, he said, proud of him:  
''I did it!''  
Kibito Kai sighed of relief and told him:  
''So, if you allow me, after the meal, we'll go visit the planet I found you.''  
The Saiyan swiftly nodded. He gulped down about twenty two different dishes then let Kibito Kai put his hand on his shoulder before feeling himself be carried toward a place he didn't know yet. When he opened his eyes, he was in a vast plain full of flowers. A fresh summer breeze caressed the green grass as well as the leaves of the trees standing about everywhere. The sky, crossed by some clouds, was of the purest blue he had ever seen. Here and there gambolled animals unknown to Vegetto. The one which stroke him most was a kind of three feet tall striped canidae with white fur on his head and paws. The animal sneezed an imposing flame before disappearing in a bush. Filled with wonder, the Saiyan shyly asked:  
''So, that's here that I'll grow my senzu beans?''  
'' Well, yes.'' confirmed Kibito Kai. ''It's here.''  
Vegetto couldn't believe it. He certainly had seen beautiful landscape in his life, but that one just outshone any other he may have seen. And when he thought that this planet now was his... Kibito Kai interrupted his trail of thoughts:  
“This planet is perfect: the soil is very rich as none had ever cultivated anything on this soil and the air is as pure as gods' realm's air. Actually, we are the first intelligent beings to set foot here. Besides, there is no risk of it to be discovered. Well, here and there, there are some animals, some strange creatures as you can see, but nothing too dangerous. Moreover, even if it's not a big planet, it still is big enough to grown enough senzu beans to feed you. We have calculated that you could grow about one million senzu beans per year.”  
“Awesome...” That was the only word that crossed Vegetto's mind as he was glancing around, with something like awe in his eyes, as if he was a child who had gotten the toy he had been wanting for so long and couldn't believe it. Kibito Kai laughed.  
“We'll come back later. Make sure to memorize that place.”  
Vegetto nodded, engraving the place in his memory, then they disappeared. The Saiyan opened his eyes when he was in the gods' realm. Then he said to Kibito Kai:  
“So, I can go home for now?”  
“Yes.” his master approved with a smile. “Fix whatever you need to with your family, then come back and tell me how do you plan on using your planet. We'll decide what to do when your return, according to...”  
“Very well!”  
Vegetto placed his index and forefinger to his brow and concentrated on the living room of Capsule Corp. He smiled one last time at his master and disappeared. When he was gone, Kibito Kai let out a deep sigh. Coming out of nowhere, the doyen walked up to him and asked:  
“So? How did he manage?”  
“He did very good... By the way, I've something of the utmost importance to tell you...”  
The old god frowned, looking very serious. He mumbled:  
“I think I know what is it about. But please, tell me.”  
Kibito Kai sat down and gestured his superior to do the same, then he shared what he had found, the Old Kai both nodded and frowned as he was listening to the piece of information...  
Bulma, languishing on her sofa was thinking of Vegetto and of his future. What was it to become of him? What was it to become of her? And what about Trunks, Chi-Chi, Gohan and Goten? What was it to become of them? Knowing that only time would answer, she turned around. That's when she felt a kind of draught. With extrem weariness, she looked up to see where it could come from and her eyes fell on Vegetto, two fingers on his forehead and a smirk on his lips. He winked at her. Bulma was so happy that she threw herself in his arms.  
“You're done already! I knew you would accomplish it quickly! And what happened? Are you hungry?”  
“Hold on!” Interrupted Vegetto. “One question at a time. Yes, I'm done and I've many things to tell you. And yes, I'm very hungry!”  
Bulma laughed and winked back at him:  
“Then the Chef Bulma is going to cook the best dishes for you! And while I'm preparing them, you could tell me what happened during these past four days!”  
They went in the kitchen and Vegetto related his training in detail while Bulma was cooking no less than fifteen dishes at the same time! Two hours later, they were done and sat down to eat. The Saiyan decided to speak about what mattered most:  
“Listen Bulma. I've something extremely important to tell you.” he said between two mouthfuls of chicken.  
“About what?” she asked, even if she had guessed what this was about.  
“About love. I have lived some months now, and I have been able to take stock of the situation: what do I want, where I'm going, what do I think and... who do I love too.”  
“And then?” she pressed him for she was eager to know.  
“I told you that the kiss of the other day wasn't an accident. That's because I wanted it. And now I want to live with you and to live a relationship out into the open with you. I assure you that it's not Vegeta loving you through me: I love you.”  
When she heard that, Bulma felt as if happiness would overwhelm her. She too had come to love Vegetto, not the Vegeta in him. She loved his habits, his expressions and gestures and his features. She was sure of it. She had kissed her husband goodbye. She took his hands and, as tears filled her eyes even thoughx she was smiling broadly, she said:  
“I feel the same! I mean... I know it's terribly cliché but I know what you feel because I have the same feelings! I want you to live here as well...”  
“But... Will you cope with my leaving once every two days? And what about my 'husband of Chi-Chi' status?”  
“I already cope with them.” answered Bulma. “To tell the truth, it's nothing. You'll be here every other days, it's still count!”  
Vegetto smiled at her, aware that Vegeta hasn't been at home that often. They decided to tell it to everyone at the same time; so that they wouldn't have to tell it over and over and have people calling them for they'd be surprised. That's why that very evening they called the whole clique to come. One hour later, the entire Z-team was present. Bulma asked them to sit in the living-room, as she usually did when she had news to share with them, and sat at Vegetto's side when he started speaking.  
“So, listen, I've decided to go out with Bulma. She's the one I love.”  
Everyone smiled but they weren't surprised.  
“Well, that was rather obvious!” statted Chi-Chi as she threw a glance that said 'I'm sorry' at Kulilin who answered with a shrug.  
“But are you ok with it?” asked Bulma, worried.  
“Of course. I'm not in love with Vegetto, he's too much like your husband!” she joked.  
Bulma sighed of relief. She had feared a crisis, as the one she had to cope with when Chi-Chi had learned about the kiss, but apparently Chi-Chi too had come to a conclusion regarding her feelings. Bulma had cooked brochettes that everyone hurried to take before the hungry Saiyan ate them all. The evening was quiet and spent in a good atmosphere. At the end, Vegetto gathered the guests and, more serious looking, wanted to tell them about his new planet.  
“Now, we've to organize things regarding the planet where I'll grow the beans.”  
He paused to make sure everyone was listening and then carried on.  
“I'll need help for the beginning. Chi-Chi, you could help me delimiting the fields, boys you could help me sow...”  
“Don't worry Vegetto.” said Chi-Chi with a smile. “You know what? We're all going on that planet of yours for an unlimited amount of time. Once there, we'll plant the first shoots then you'll see if you can have people working for you...”  
“I could take care of the salaries!” offered Bulma.  
“Anyway, don't worry about it.” Chi-Chi said again. “You've done so much for us, it's the least we could do.”  
Everyone nodded and said that everything was going to be ok. Vegetto smiled back at them, he felt so relieved. Before they left, 18 winked at Vegetto and he answered with a giggle and a wave.  
He had one less burden on his mind, he felt he had made a great stride.  
When it was time to go to bed, Vegetto felt shy. Bulma asked him:  
“What's going on?”   
“What's going on?”  
“Well... I suppose I lost the habits...”  
“Come on! I won't eat you.” she laughed as she was tapping the empty place at her side.  
Vegetto snuffled and removed his shirt and his pants and then, laid on the bed. Bulma put her arm on his torso and started caressing it. For some reason, the Saiyan felt quite nervous. Bulma asked again:  
“What's going on?”  
“I don't know. I...” stammered Vegetto.  
The earth woman laughed in amusement and her hand went down on Vegetto's stomach. He tensed up a bit. She breathed in his neck and felt him shivering. Now that they were a couple, there would be no harm if she... She kissed his neck and he heaved a low sigh. She then decided to kiss his ear and the sigh was lower and louder. She smiled, Machiavellian. Apparently, her charms didn't leave him cold. She went over him and his glance was burning. It seemed he didn't see the harm either. He placed his hands on her hips and started to caress them as she was butterfly kissing his torso. This was going to be a long and intense night...  
When the Saiyan opened an eye, he closed it right after for he was dazzled with the light. Bulma actually had a wide picture window in her room that lead into a long balcony: there was nothing better to allow the sun in the room. Vegetto put his hand on his face then he smiled as he remembered the events of the previous day. Bulma was still asleep, laying on her lover's chest. In a surge of tenderness, Vegetto brushed his loved-one's cheek and softly kissed her forehead. That soft touch woke her up. She blinked and yawned then raised her head so that she could kiss Vegetto. The latter got up and gently said:  
“I've to go see Kibito Kai...”

Vegetto opened his eyes and moved his two fingers off his forehead. He was back in the gods' realm. The place was deserted for the moment but he could feel Kibito Kai's energy coming, as he had been warned by the presence of his ki of his arrival. A few seconds later, he was standing in front of him, smiling as always.  
“So, did you think about how you were going to take care of your planet?”  
“I did.” answered Vegetto with a half-smile. “My family and I are going to go there for an unlimited amount of time to take care of the plants, the installation of this or of that...”  
“When do you plan on leaving?”  
“As soon as possible. The earlier it'll be done, the later I'll starve...”  
“I understand. Very well then. You have mastered my technique; so you manage your planet the way you want.”   
Vegetto felt grateful for the god. He put his hand on his shoulder and, as a sincere smile widened his lips, he said:  
“I'll never be able to thank you enough for what you've done for me.”  
“It's nothing.” answered Kibito Kai. “You know, compared with Buu's death, that's the least I could do.”  
Vegetto thanked him once again before disappearing. That's when the doyen of the gods came and said:  
“He doesn't seem to be evil.”  
“I know, but...” muttered Kibito Kai who wasn't smiling anymore.  
“I understood. His power, is that it?”  
Kibito Kai nodded, his fists clenched.   
Bulma, sitting, was waiting for the one who now was his lover. She knew he'd not take long, but still, she feared what could happen. She got up and started pacing, worried sick, when he appeared in front of her. She looked inquiringly at him and he answered her with a nod. She knew what it meant. They could go...

Trunks had always been a calm and clever boy. At the age where most kids run everywhere and hit the toys that don't want to interlock, he just sat and analyzed the problem in his child's brain. It was him who helped Goten to finish his first 15-pieces jigsaw puzzle, it was him who found the keys his mother had lost, he had been the first to know how to fly, it was him again who had had the idea of the disguise during the tournament, and it was him who had first understood the moves the fusion required. In short, Trunks was a gifted child. So, it was in full knowledge of the fact that he had decided to eavesdrop on his parents in order to get some more information. Of course, he kept Goten informed of everything. That's how the two friends were aware of the day of the departure a long time before everyone else. When Vegetto came back, they were the first to know that the departure was imminent. Goten was overjoyed behind the sofa and so was Trunks. The first thing Vegetto said when he came back was:  
“Are you done eavesdropping? Both of you.”  
The two young boys were so startled that the sofa fell over. Vegetto asked:  
“You didn't think that I couldn't feel your strength, no matter how reduced it was, did you?”  
“Huh...” stammered Trunks.  
“So, when are we going?” asked Goten, happy.  
“As soon as everyone get here. I am counting on you to go look for them or do I need to call them?”  
“Count on us!” said the two at the same time as they rushed out.  
Vegetto sighed heavily.  
“We'll have two hours of peace...”  
Outside, the two boys were flying at full speed through the clouds.  
“Hey Goten! You'll warn your family, I will go fetch Kulilin!”  
“No problem! See you later Trunks!!”  
And with that, the young men went on separate ways.

Goten felt the wind on his face and enjoyed it. His heart was beating with joy and excitement, so much joy and excitement that he transformed to go faster. After he had flown over several landscapes, he landed in front of his house. Chi-Chi went out.

“Oh, my dear. How was your week-end with Trunks?”  
“Mom, dad's back. We're going!”  
“Alright, give me time to get prepared. And, Goten...”  
“Yes mom?”  
“Let your hair black. Blond hair makes you look like a goon.”  
Goten's hair sagged as he put his hand at the back of his head, smiling broadly, he said:  
“Oh, yes. I'm sorry.”  
As for Trunks, he was shooting fast in the sky. For a while, he accompanied a flight of birds flying over the oceans when he caught sight of Master Roshi's islet. As he landed, he screamed:  
“Kulilin! Master Roshi! 18!”  
The three people went out, 18, who was carrying Marron in her arms, greeted him with:  
“Trunks, what bring you here?”  
“We're going! Dad's back from the gods' realm and everything is ready!”  
“Wonderful!” exclaimed Kulilin with a broad smile.  
“But I've to stay behind.” sadly said the Turtle Hermit.  
“Why that?” asked Marron's father.  
“If I leave, who will take care of the turtle?”  
“But she can come along.” answered the disciple.  
Master Roshi sadly shook his head.  
“I really can't go with you... Unless 18 absolutely wants me to join you?” said the lecherous old man, with red cheeks and a bloody nose.  
The cyborg hit the old master very hard and then said:  
“Not even in your dream, old glucose-full fool!”

Master Roshi, even though his face was buried in the sand, managed to sigh of disappointment.  
“In that case, go... I know what you think of me now...”  
They flew away; not without one last glance for Kame House. When they were nothing more than a star in the sky, the Turtle Hermit got up and rushed inside to switch on his new computer.  
“Hahahaha... I'll have the house for myself for quite a while, which means..”  
Giggling, he logged on his new favorite site, meeting.ball. He started to fill his datas:  
Energic man looking for breasty young woman for love by the sea. Preferably not violent and with a liking for turtles.  
Master Roshi burst out laughing even louder as he opened his mail box.

In the meantime, Trunks, Kulilin, 18 and Marron were flying over the sea...  
“Do you think that Master Roshi will manage on his own while we are away?” asked Kulilin, for he felt sorry for him.  
“You kid me? That old man is resourceful.” answered 18 who was merciless towards the old master.  
Half an hour later, they landed in front of Capsule Corp. Trunks noticed that Goten was already here but that there was someone missing...  
“Where is Gohan?” he asked.  
“I don't know.” replied his brother, if not by blood, at least by heart. “When I went to fetch my mother, he wasn't here.”  
“I think he had planned to go out with Videl today.” statted Chi-Chi.  
“And it doesn't bother you that your dear son go out with a girl?” asked Kulilin, actually teasing her.   
Everybody knew that the only reason for which Chi-Chi accepted Videl in her family was that she was rich. Chi-Chi didn't seem to have heard and told Vegetto:  
“You should go look for them.”  
The Saiyan nodded then he made the usual gesture that would bring him near his son. He detected his son's ki and left.  
In Videl's bedroom, the ambiance was quite intense. Gohan was sitting astride his girlfriend and was kissing her passionately. Videl took his hand and placed him on her breast. Gohan stopped then, lustful but also embarrassed.  
“Do you want... that we... now?”  
Videl bit her bottom lip and nodded.  
“I do want! I love you Gohan.”  
Emboldened, the half Saiyan began removing his girlfriend's shirt when he felt a ki right behind him. He gave a start and got up hastily as he recognized his father's ki. The latter was staring at them, baffled. Gohan stammered:

“D... dad? But what the hell are you doing here?”  
“I'm sorry. I never thought that I could catch you on the verge of... Good thing that I didn't leave 10 minutes later!”  
Videl had quickly pulled her shirt down, her cheek red with shame. Vegetto told them:  
“We're going for our new planet now. You coming?”  
“Huh... Ok.” said Gohan.  
“Just give me time to take some clothes.” begged Videl, taking a bag.   
The two men left the room, each avoiding the glance of the other. Vegetto broke the ice.  
“I'm sorry to have interrupted you like that...”  
“It's ok...” answered Gohan, very embarrassed.  
“No, it's not... Especially considering it's your first time.”  
Gohan went from very embarrassed to extremely embarrassed. He was red as a beetroot and found that his shoes were very interesting all of a sudden. He starred at them until Videl arrived.  
“Alright, everything is ready! Are we going?”  
The lovers put their hands on the Saiyan who teleported them in front of Capsule Corp. Everyone was finally here. Vegetto went to take the stock of Senzu seeds that Korin-sama had given him.  
“By the way, you haven't given your planet a name.”  
“Oh, it's true.” admitted Vegetto. “But I've no idea about it...”  
“You'll grow Senzu beans there, call it Senzu.” offered Kulilin.  
“That's not original.” sighed Bulma. “Call it for what it represent, it's way more poetic!”  
Vegetto looked at the ground whereas Kulilin was glaring at Bulma. Then the Saiyan looked up, resolute.  
“That planet if my last hope of survival for without it I'm condemned to starvation. I say, let's call him Last Hope...”  
“That sounds good.” said Chi-Chi with a smile.  
“It sounds a tad melodramatic but yea, it's nice.” added Bulma.  
“So, let's go to Last Hope!” exclaimed Kulilin as he took the hands of the two persons at his side.  
Bulma placed her hand on Vegetto's shoulder who smiled at her before placing his fingers on his forehead. He saw the greenery, the blue sky, the majestic trees, the beauty of this place whose fragrance reminded him of spring...  
And disappeared.  
When the group found themselves in the middle of the meadow, they were all left breathless. Trunks was the first to break the silence caused by the discovery:  
“It... It's...”  
“Wonderful...” finished Bulma, dumbfounded.  
“Indeed.” conceded Gohan as he was starring around at the landscape.

Goten smiled and rushed at a beast that had come out of a neighboring bush. It was a kind of enormous lizard that walked on his hind paws. His small forepaws had claws, his big ears were similar to those of a cat and it had a beak for a mouth. Goten stroked his bluish scales with glee and, in turn, the chirping lizard shook his tail out of pleasure and then licked the young boy’s cheek.   
“You’re so cute! I’ll name you… Spike! It suits you perfectly!”  
Spike emitted a kind of croak then licked Goten’s cheek one last time before leaving to where it came from.  
“See you later, Spike!” said Goten as he waved to the creature. And then, Trunks suddenly was at his side.  
“Did you see that? There are a lot of weird animals on this planet!” exclaimed Trunks, who was like a cat on a hot tin roof.  
“I saw! Let’s go see them.” He offered but had flown away even before his friend could give him any answer.  
The two young boys rushed through the trees in search of new animal species whereas, in the meantime, the elders were setting up camp. Bulma took a capsule from her belt that she threw, screaming: Hoï Poï!” After a soft clicking sound, the capsule opened itself, emitting both an amazing amount of smoke and a whistle. A big house now stood where there had been nothing but empty space a few seconds earlier and everyone took in their heavy luggage. Then, Chi-Chi took a map and spread it on a table.  
“It’s easy: we are going to divide the planet in half.”  
“Why that?” asked Vegetto, curious.  
Chi-Chi sighed deeply as she thought that Goku hadn’t really been listening when she tried to explain to him how their fields worked. She finally said:  
“It’s because the more we cultivate a soil, the more we drain on its resources: food take their energy in the nutrients the ground contains. If we were to use all of the available soil, in two year time, no senzu beans could grow on this planet anymore.”  
Serious-looking, Vegetto nodded. He really wanted to correctly cultivate his fields in order to not spoil such a pretty planet. Chi-Chi had drawn a crude circle on a piece of paper, and then she cut it in two.  
“This is roughly what we’ll do. We’ll have to find springs of fresh water in order to irrigate the fields. I do not know if you plan on deforesting a bit, you’ll have to tell me that later. We will also have to find a way to keep the beasts at bay. Do you prefer working with tools or with machines?”  
“With tools. It’d be a sacrilege to bring machines to this place.”   
“So, the first steps are: to find water springs then to find a ground that is suitable for cultivation and, finally, to set its limits. We’ll see then how to manage irrigation and plantation.”  
Vegetto nodded. To find and classify the rivers would be an easy, and quickly done, task for, with their speed, even Trunks and Goten took only a few hours to fly around the Earth. It’d be very useful. Bulma took small devices from her suitcase and she placed them on the table with a satisfied smile. Then she explained:  
“Behold my new invention: the probing mini-plane!”  
Vegetto and Chi-Chi starred at her and waited for extra information. Bulma pointed at a plate located on what probably was the underside of the device.  
“This emits ultrasound. This will enable the e robot to draw a map of the place. It automatically calculates the scale and takes the proportions of the lands. Inside (she pointed at the rounded part in the middle), there is a system that records the data and draws the map as it goes along. Once the robot had done a one hundred kilometer square reconnaissance, it sends its data to the computer and to the other robots. Finally, that small plate on the upside is a solar panel, so these devices are entirely environment-friendly!”   
It’d be an euphemism to say that both Vegetto and Chi-Chi were impressed by all that technology. The Saiyan said:  
“Thank you very much, Bulma! It’s something we can withdraw from the to-do list!”  
“You’re welcome. It’ll just take them time to complete it. By the way, those mini-planes flew a lot less good than you do, so it’d be nice if you could throw one toward each side of the planet in order to give them a good start, … And a few kilometer high, if you don’t mind.”  
“The boys and I will do that later.” said an enthusiastic Vegetto.  
“But, what if the robots record the same part of the planet?” Chi-Chi, having raised her finger, asked.  
“Oh, they won’t cross each other’s paths. With each data send to the computer, they will know what part of the planet hadn’t been recorded yet and they’ll automatically go to an unknown place, far from the other planes.”  
“It’s great…” muttered Chi-Chi, deep in thought.  
“I know!” proudly boasted Bulma.  
Outside, Gohan and Videl were gone on reconnaissance. They had seen several kind of strange beasts, as winged dogs, birds that were bigger than a house and so on, but they took delight in the purity of the place. Videl landed near a river that had attracted her with her enchanting aspect. Gohan sat beside the bank and closed his eyes, the soft sound of water resounding in his ear. He felt when Videl sat at his side and put her head on his chest as she mechanically started to stroke his hair. Nothing in the world could disturb the peace that the couple felt.  
“Oh, the lovers!” Goten screamed as he spattered water on his brother.  
Gohan and Videl got up, surprised and annoyed by the splashing.  
“You stupid boys! If ever I catch you…” threatened the half-saiyan, annoyed by the kids’ behavior.  
Goten and Trunks left, laughing. Gohan sighed deeply. Those kids…  
The two young boys resumed their journey.  
“That was funny…” said Trunks. “We’ve seen many lakes and rivers, but we haven’t seen any sea yet…”  
“We’re not done circling the planet. We’ll eventually find a beach.” answered Goten thoughtfully.  
Trunks nodded and they flew even faster. All here was greenery, flowers and forest. Sometime, they could see fifty-meter-high trees, which showed how old the place was. The two boys were about to lose hope when they found a wide expanse of water. Goten exclaimed with joy:  
“Hurray! We’ve finally found the sea.”  
They dove into the salted water, taking delight in the aquatic freshness on their skin. One hour later, they knew that it was time to go back when their heard their stomachs growl… But not without making a last prank on Gohan!  
On their side, lover boy was flirting a bit with his girlfriend and more… Gohan sighed of well-being when Videl whispered into his ear:  
“Gohan… What if we resumed what we were doing before your father interrupted us?”  
The young man was excited by that sentence which aroused a very… clear reaction in a part of his body. Videl laughed before asking:“Is that a yes?”  
Gohan swallowed then nodded.  
“But I can feel Trunks and Goten’s energies coming towards us… Let’s go somewhere else; somewhere they couldn’t disturb us…”  
As these knights of old, the half-saiyan took his companion into his arms and brought her into a small cave that was not so far away . The two jokers arrived a few minutes later but as they didn’t find anything (and as their stomachs were growling more and more) they left to the camp. Gohan smiled once he was certain that his brother was gone and kissed Videl…  
After many private actions and an improvised bath in the river, the couple flew off and arrived just in time for the meal.  
When Gohan and Videl arrived, everyone was already sitting at the table. Chi-Chi exclaimed:  
“Gohan-cha! How come you arrive only now?”  
Gohan rubbed his nape and threw a sorry glance to his mother as he was sitting down.  
“ Sorry, we've started to eat but Vegetto refused to go look for you, I don't know why...” Bulma sighed.  
Gohan glanced at his father who answered with a wink and a broad smile. Gohan felt he was red as a beetroot but helped himself with dignity and bit a chicken thigh with a nonchalance that he didn’t feel. Videl laughed a bit when she understood how embarrassed her lover was but quickly followed his lead and took a rice bowl. Bulma took advantage that everybody was around to explain:  
“Look, Vegetto, Chi-Chi and I have discussed about what we would do. First, we will set the borders. The robots are going to go round the planet in order to calculate its surface. They will do it tonight so that tomorrow, you could go put marks on these borders.”  
“Who does that ‘you’ include?” asked Gohan though he knew very well that he was about to be named.  
“I mean anyone who is able to fly fast enough to go around the world in twenty minutes…”  
Gohan, Trunks, Goten, 18, Kulilin and Vegetto sighed heavily. Videl asked:  
“But do I have to do it too?”  
“No, you can stay with us!”Bulma and Chi-Chi answered at the same time.  
The young woman sighed of relief. Yet, Kulilin rose up against that.  
“But she can fly too! How come she can stay while we can’t?”  
“You wouldn’t dare to send a frail young woman to do that work, would you?” retorted Bulma.  
“Of course no, but… I have to take care of my daughter…” he tried.  
“We’ll do it, don’t worry about it!” Chi-Chi said as she stroked Marron’s blond hair.  
Sulking, Kulilin put his head in the palm of his hand, but the meal resumed in a good mood. Once again, Vegetto ate a bit more than the last time, which silently worried everybody, yet none said anything. Once the dinner was done, Bulma switched on her small devices – not without having explained a second time what it was and how it worked – and let them out to recharge as they needed solar energy. Bulma smiled with pride.  
“With them, we will have the plan of the planet tomorrow morning. I will be able to determine a lot of things thanks to that…”  
“Such as?” asked Gohan who was curious to know.  
“Well, the surface, the percentage of forest, seas, mountains, the diameter of the planet, and the location of the poles…” the scientist, who was deep in thought, listed as she took a capsule bag.  
From it, she took a capsule and threw it in a rather wide empty space. A huge telescope appeared and Gohan, admiring, asked:  
“What’s the use of it?”  
“Well, it will enable me to calculate the distance between this planet and its sun, I’ll be able to check how many planets there are in this system and to locate the natural satellite, as well as to calculate how long its revolution lasts and the time Last Hope takes to rotate.”  
Gohan nodded at each new function of the telescope, he was very interested in how it worked. Astronomy had always been one of his favorite subjects. This probably dated back to the days when he was a child and he used to watch the stars with his father just before falling asleep under them.  
“Could I help you?” asked the young man to Bulma.  
“Of course! I was about to ask.” she answered.  
Gohan smiled broadly at her and then looked at the sky. The sun was low on the horizon and should reach it in less than an hour. As he wanted to enjoy the last rays of sun, he left with Videl. Kulilin glanced at Marron and saw that she was playing with Trunks, Goten and Spike, the youngest Son’s lizard. He smiled at his wife.  
“It seems that things will be quiet for a while…”  
“What if we took advantage of it to leave for a bit?” asked the cyborg, smiling back at him.  
“Where to?” asked the earthling as he threw an inquiring look at her.  
“I have seen a rather nice plain over there. We could go there for a walk.”  
The couple flew, in order to be on their own for a while. Bulma sighed when she noticed that Trunks, Goten and Marron were heading to the forest with their new friend. So once again, Chi-Chi, Vegetto and she were left together. She watched the two others speaking and laughing and decided to go explore that unknown land too. From her capsules, she took a kind of small kart that needed electricity to work (for Vegetto had insisted on how important it was to keep that planet as clean as possible) and went on her way. At the camp, there were only Chi-Chi and Vegetto left.  
“… and then Goten had to put the dog down. You should have seen his face! Poor boy, I was on the verge of telling that woman that she just had to pay attention to her animals and of taking the dog back to give it to Goten!” Vegetto related with a smile.  
Chi-Chi laughed, imagining Goten’s sad face when he had found who the owner of the dog was. She managed to say, between two giggles:  
“It’s… so much like him to do that!”  
The two laughed a bit then calmed down. Vegetto decided to speak about a more serious matter:  
“You… Do you plan on getting re-married?”  
She looked at him, rather upset. Vegetto carried on.  
“You could, after all, Gokû is dead and if you want to …”  
Chi-Chi sighed but answered with a smile:  
“I do not plan on remarrying. Gokû-sa was my first love and there is place for none else in my heart. I do not think I’ll find, nor love, anyone else.”  
Vegetto smiled at her. Chi-Chi was a strong and independent woman. It was true that she probably didn’t need any other man in her life: after all, she had her two sons and Vegetto with her. The Saiyan got up and stretched. He cracked his back then said:  
“What about going to explore the place instead of remaining in the camp as two silly persons?”  
He didn’t give her time to answer but took Chi-Chi into his arms before flying away at top speed. Chi-Chi screamed, but the scream quickly became a laugh.

“Higher!!” she demanded.  
Vegetto obeyed and took altitude. They arrived near a lake and he swooped down. His maneuver was accompanied by another scream from Chi-Chi. He stabilized himself a few inches above the surface and flew over the blue expense at top speed. Chi-Chi put her hand into the water as she yelled in joy. Some drops wet their laughing faces. Once they were near the bank, Vegetto flew up again. For a while, he followed a flight of white beaked black bird then went towards a mountain. He landed on a flat rock where some tufts of glass stood there and there. In front of them, the sun was reaching the horizon. It took a yellowish orange color and then a rust orange one. When only the top of the sun could be seen, the sky became red until the star totally disappeared. Vegetto took Chi-Chi into his arms again and they went back to the camp. Not a word was said on the way back but their complicity was strengthened…  
On their side, Kulilin and 18 were also enjoying the setting sun. Sitting side by side on the green grass, they were contemplating the sun rays that were disappearing behind the rocky horizon. 18 placed her head on Kulilin’s shoulder and the latter blushed at this unexpected contact. He kissed her quickly on the forehead, pushed by a surge of tenderness when suddenly…  
“Spike, wait!!!” yelled Goten at his lizard who was running away as fast as he could, with Marron sitting on its back.  
The lizard jumped above the laying couple and so did Trunks and Goten.  
“Mommy!! Daddy!!” screamed Marron when she saw her parents.  
She went down the animal’s back and rushed to hug the couple. 18, upset to have been so rudely interrupted, caught her daughter and flew towards the camp. She crossed Gohan and Videl who were holding each other’s hands as they flew. They smiled at her. She kept their pace as they went back, speaking with her husband and the lovers.  
“That planet really is beautiful, isn’t it?” said Gohan with a stupid smile.  
“Yes… the greenery, those trees, the pure blue sky…” added Videl with that same stupid smile.  
“Hmhm… A nice place for first times.” 18 said.  
The two teenagers were as red as a beetroot whereas Kulilin shot a choked look at his wife, taken aback by her shamelessness.  
“Mommy, what is a ‘first time’?” asked Marron who didn’t understand what they were talking about.  
“You will understand when you are fifteen, my dear.”  
“Fifteen?!” Marron’s father disagreed. “That would be twenty-five!”  
Gohan and Videl laughed at Kulilin’s over-protection on his daughter. Five minutes later, there were back at the camp. There, they found Vegetto and Chi-Chi, laughing together and Gohan smiled at that for he was happy to see that in spite of the official relationship between Bulma and Vegetto, his mother and his father still got along well.  
Bulma arrived a few moments later and switched on her robots she had left outside to recharge them as they needed solar energy. She pushed a button that was hidden behind the upper plate. The device emitted a ‘bip’ and it shook as it levitated a few seconds. Then it went up twenty meters above their heads and finally left towards the north. Bulma smiled of satisfaction and switched on the other robots as she had the first. Five minutes later, the six devices had left in different directions. Bulma stretched then declared with arrogance:  
“My amazing devices will now make all the work and come back when there are done. Then we will print their report. In the meanwhile, we can all go to rest!”  
“When will they be done?” asked Gohan.  
“It depends of the planet’s surface.”  
The group nodded and went into the house to enjoy their last moment of peace.

 

Bulma stretched, a coffee mug into her hand, as she was delighting in the morning freshness due to the recent dew. At the horizon, the sun was only starting to spread his golden rays on the landscape. Bulma screwed up her eyes and frowned for she was blinded. She turned her back to the star. Not that she disliked sunrises but her tired eyes couldn’t bear the brightness it gave off. She yawned and stretched once again. She sipped her coffee then grimaced: it was too strong and therefore needed more sugar. She was about to go back inside the house to fetch some milk and sugar when she heard a small noise. She stretched her ear to hear better: a repetitive ‘bip’ was getting nearer. She turned and was face to face with her six robots. The devices came to her and then printed their data all at the same time. Bulma took the pieces of paper she quickly read, a smile on her lips. She finished her drink in one gulp then went in to take the big cork board she opened outside. On it, she fixed the six maps with thumbtacks side by side. Once the wall jigsaw was done, she read the printed data. Each map was about thirty inches by fifteen and a small indication specified that, on each map, an inch was the equivalent of sixty miles. Therefore the diameter of the planet was of thirteen thousands kilometers, which was half the one of Earth. There was only one huge continent, and the planet was covered at 57% of water and so at 43% of soil, there were no desert. 41% of the continent was covered with forests and 24% with mountains. The remaining 35% were hills and valleys, which was good for farming! She saw that there was a big amount of rivers and she smiled in relief: it wouldn’t be too hard to irrigate the fields. She divided the farmable area in two and she spent the following hour placing several landmarks on the map. That was when she heard a sound coming from behind her. She turned back and saw Vegetto who was looking at the board.  
“ So that's it…” he said, deep in thought.  
“Well, yes. It’s your planet. By the way, you will have to give names to the different parts so that everybody can understand of what place they are talking about.”  
Vegetto nodded as he kept starring at the map. He sighed.  
“There is going to be a lot of work to be done…”  
“I agree. But you are Saiyans, you can do it without problem.”  
Vegetto scratched his head then took a pen and started writing on the sheets of paper.  
“Let me connect the landmarks that you had placed. Let’s say that those are the six countries of the map. I’ll name them… Porunga, Shenron, Korin, Dende, Popo and Piccolo.”  
Bulma laughed at the Saiyan’s creative mind.  
“Excuse me, I have no imagination.” He sighed. “Then, I’m going to call that big forest here Gohan and the smaller ones around are Trunks, Goten and Kulilin… As there is only one ocean, I’ll call it ‘Ocean’… Then that big valley here will be Bulma and that one Chi-Chi…”  
“There are two high mountains left.” Reminded Bulma. “Then you’ll have named most places of the planet.”  
“Easy: we’ll name them Gokû and Vegeta.”  
“You should take more time…” said Bulma.  
“No, I don’t want to waste too long on it. With these name are good enough to let us know where is what, and that’s what we need.”  
“You really are quite lazy.”  
Vegetto charmingly smiled at her then put his pen back.

A few hours later, everybody was up, dressed and ready for their work day.  
“Let’s recap,” declared Bulma loudly, as she read from a paper. “Gohan, Videl, Trunks, Goten, Kulilin and Vegetto, you are going to place the boundary markers I gave you in the places that are indicated on the map. Everybody got his own, by the way?”  
The six men nodded but Goten, scatterbrain, asked:  
“But, what is their use?”  
“I told you at least three times already…” Bulma sighed.  
“It’s to divide the continent in two parts of the same size. Roughly, it’s to draw lines.” Trunks said to his friend.  
Goten opened his mouth as if to say ‘Oh, alright!’ Once Goten got his attention back on Bulma, this latter carried on:  
“So, come back once you’re done, I’ll give you further order then.”  
They nodded again and flew away right then. Once the warriors were out of sight, Chi-Chi sighed, a smile of pure happiness on her lips.  
“Ah, finally between girls…”  
Indeed, there was just Chi-Chi, Bulma, 18 and her daughter at the camp. Chi-Chi then took a thermos and poured hot tea in three cups. Marron hadn’t woken up yet and the three women had resolved to take advantage of the peace to relax! Bulma and Chi-Chi monopolized the conversation whereas 18, naturally taciturn, listened only. From topic to topic and gossip to gossip, the three women had come to speak about their family lives.  
“… and then Trunks totally broke it! I tell you! It was my favorite vase!” Bulma was indignant.  
Chi-Chi shook her head, she was outraged by so much clumsiness as 18 just took another sip of her tea.  
“I haven’t told you what Gohan did! Imagine that just the other day, he wanted to open the door. Well, he completely crushed the handle! I can’t afford buying handles every other days!”  
It was Bulma’s turn to shake her head as 18 just took another sip of her tea. The cyborg watched silently the two women’s game without understanding much of it. Since her transformation, these women gathering – whose purpose was speaking of their lives and complaining about it as well as having a cup of tea – were utterly foreign to her. She didn’t take pleasure in these small talks, neither in the stories from the program ‘Satan City’s gossip’. The cyborg just wanted to leave as fast as possible during these moments. The only thing that kept her here, nodding with half a smile on her lips, was the gratitude she felt towards Bulma who had enabled her to have her child. As Bulma was complaining about Trunks’ latest habits of leaving his dirty socks lying around, 18 drank the last sip of her cup of tea. The drink burned her throat a bit.

Gohan, studying the map he had in his hand, suddenly stopped in order to frenetically look around. No doubt about it, it was the right place. He quickly landed and hammered the device that Bulma had given him not one hour earlier in. Once he was certain that the boundary mark was deep in the ground, he took off towards the camp. The wind on his face made him feel so good that he accelerated to increase his happiness. Gohan had always loved to fly: he felt better with each flight. Wanting to be alone all of a sudden, he landed in the shadow of a tree on the side of the mountain that he was flying over. His body estimated the temperature to be 22°C. A fresh breeze made his bang move. Rocked by the sound of the near-by animals, he closed his eyes, ready to fall asleep when the sound of human pace interrupted his trance.  
“You’re resting, son?”  
“You can say that… It’s always nice to be in a quiet place. You know it much better than I.”  
Vegetto quietly laid down at his son’s side. A long and peaceful silence took place between the two men. Once of these silence that wasn’t awkward but serene, one that says much about what people think and that says much more than a long speech. Vegetto was the first to break it:  
“Gohan, how are things with Videl?”  
“Why do you ask me that?” asked the blushing young man.  
“Because it seems to me to be rather serious… Do you know how I met your mother?”  
Gohan smiled at the memory of Chi-Chi’s tale, the tournament, then the weeding, and suddenly, her being pregnant of him… But a question bothered him. A question he considered a long time before having the guts to ask.  
“Could you explain a mystery to me?”  
“I can try…”  
“How come Vegeta and Bulma started to… go out together?”  
Vegetto scratched his head, rummaging around in that part of his memories. To crudely tell the story probably was the best way. He took a breath and began:  
“Well, as you imagine, it wasn’t love at first sight… I guess you know already that Vegeta was way less innocent than Gokû. They had completely different ways of thinking…” Gohan nodded with a small smile. “And so, when he was at Bulma’s house, it had been quite a while that he hadn’t… er… How to say…” Gohan grimaced to show that he had understood perfectly well. “And Bulma was here. She had had another of these bickerings with Yamcha and she was beginning to find a certain charm in him. Of course, he was aware of it. He felt it actually. He always had had a kind of sixth sense to guess what people’s intentions towards him were. And so, it happened. But don’t believe there were no feelings behind it. He too was starting to fall for Bulma. And so it happened once, then twice… And so on. In truth, both of them were happy with the situation: they had physical pleasure. But then, there was something more. Of course, Bulma was able to live with it, but for Vegeta on the other hand… It was completely different. He was frustrated because he didn’t manage to reach the level of Super Saiyan but also because he was developing a kind of dependence to Bulma. Of course, he wanted to stop it. It was the way he handled things. But in the meanwhile, Bulma had gotten pregnant so he simply went away.”  
“I wasn’t expecting it at all…” said Gohan, baffled. “But go on.”  
“Then there had been the cyborgs, and Cell… And he came back. He took consciousness of some things and so he came back home to take care of his family, and back to Bulma that he hadn’t been able to forget.”  
Gohan breathed heavily. All these revelations were enough to give him a headache! After a few seconds, Vegetto said:  
“We should start to head back. They’re going to wonder where we are…”  
Gohan nodded and got up. And so, the father and the son got back without uttering a word.  
Everybody had a map that had a red colored part in their hands: that was where they had to plow the fields. Kulilin and Vegetto smiled.  
“It brings back to the good old time!” exclaimed Kulilin.  
“Yeah, it also brings back memories…” Vegetto muttered.  
“Should we do it bare handed?” asked Trunks, frowning.  
“We’ll be faster that way.” Replied Vegetto as he stretched. “Besides, you’ll exercise.”  
“Go do it instead of talking. Then you’ll be faster!” growled Bulma.  
The men nodded and then took off.  
When Vegetto arrived in his field, he put his hands on the soil. He felt a sort of nostalgia overcoming him. He saw smaller hands, the hands of a child plowing a field with difficulty. Dazed, he closed his eyes for a few seconds then opened them to see his own hands. He felt a tear in the corner of his eyes, but he didn’t rub it off. With rage, he put his hands in the ground and started working, his mind elsewhere…

Further, Kulilin bustled about working as fast as he could. After half an hour, he allowed himself a short break. He had plowed about thirty miles square of field, he could rest a bit, couldn’t he? He exhaled heavily and let himself fall on the ground, his eyes focused on the blue sky. Memories of Gokû and him came back from time to time. No matter how he liked Vegetto, it wasn’t the same… On the other hand, he had none to blame for anything… After all, there was no one to blame… Besides, it had been only a few months that he had been gone. Time would heal. Kulilin closed his eyes that tears had filled at the thought of his best friend, almost his brother… After a while, he dried his tears with his sleeves then got back up and stretched. Those fields weren’t going to plow themselves!  
As for Gohan, he was working faster than ever without taking even a ten second break. He wanted to be done as soon as possible to go back to Videl who had stayed at the camp. The girls had decided that plowing was a man’s work. And he hadn’t managed to make them think otherwise. Oh well… According to his estimations, it would take him two hours and a half, if he didn’t slow down, to finish plowing his part. Feeling much brighter with this thought, Gohan increased his rate.  
Goten and Trunks were working together on their portion of land. Side by side, they talked as they slowing got the work done. At time they took some minute long breaks, but quickly got back to work so that they would not come back too late. At about noon, Vegetto came to give them a hand. And so, that’s how the day was spent for everyone. The next day, they went to plant senzu bean seeds and the day after, they watered and fertilized. For a month, they pampered their crops. They were aware it would take several months before they could be rewarded for their work, but at the sight of Vegetto getting worse and worse due to his chronic hunger, they worked even harder. Korin-sama had given them two senzu beans but Vegetto had refused to eat them, saying he wanted to keep them for harder times. And he was right.  
At that time, there were eleven months left before the first harvests. Out of pride, Vegetto wanted to wait two other months before eating the first bean. Days peacefully passed in their small world. Three months later, Vegetto ate the first senzu bean. There were eight months left. If he took the last senzu in four or five months, he would manage to make it. He had to… Yet, Vegetto felt more and more hungry and he grew weaker and weaker. He took more time to work, he seemed more tired and ate incredible amount of food without feeling really filled. His friends were getting worried. Each night, Bulma told him to take it easy and to rest and each morning; his children told him about their concern. But, out of pride, he denied his tiredness. He even got angry at time, but his fits of anger never lasted long. Three months before the first harvests, Vegetto fainted for the first time. As he was digging for another irrigation canal, he just fell. Alarmed by the sudden drop of his ki, Gohan rushed to look for him. He found him unconscious. He landed, gripped the Saiyan by the shoulder and shook him.  
“Dad! Dad! Answer me, you have to!”  
Vegetto opened his eyes and remained silent for a few seconds and then, tried to move his arm. With no success. Gohan took his on his back and prayed every gods he knew for Vegetto’s quick healing. When Bulma saw Gohan’s arrival and that he had Vegetto on his back, she rushed to them, clearly panicking. Gohan gently put his father on the ground and breathed heavily.  
“Gohan! What happened to your father?”  
The young man didn’t answer right away as he was deep in thought. He eventually looked up to say:  
“I felt his ki drop out of sudden. I went to see what was going on and I found him like that, lying on the ground…”  
Bulma brought her hand to her mouth to prevent herself from screaming of horror. Just then, Chi-Chi ran out of the house.  
“What happened? I saw you coming from the window!”  
“Vegetto has fainted.” Answered Bulma.  
“In that case, don’t let him here!” exclaimed Chi-Chi. “Bring him inside and put him to bed.”  
Gohan did as he was told. Chi-Chi boiled water and prepared enough dishes to feed a regiment whereas Bulma was watching over Vegetto. The latter was having a fever and muttered in his sleep.  
“Heal soon…” Bulma was saying over and over as a litany.  
“Bul… ma… the dragon ball…” mumbled Vegetto.  
Bulma recognized some events of her teenager-hood in these words, those she had gone through with Gokû. But soon, Vegetto was speaking about events from another life. Memories were mixing in his head. He started to be delirious, he opened his eyes and spoke nonsense, such as “Bulma, tell the rabbit to leave” and then, losing consciousness for an hour. Everybody was very worried and that’s why they worked even harder. During Vegetto’s short moments of consciousness, Bulma, hoping it’d make him feel better, helped him to eat a few dishes, but he ate them with increased difficulty. In front of her helplessness, she dissolved into tears. Chi-Chi heard her and came to comfort her.  
“Crying won’t help. Use your energy to do something more useful.”  
“I know but… there are three months left and we’ll be able to harvest and… I fear he won’t make it.”  
“He will make it,” Chi-Chi said. She sounded so sure that Bulma couldn’t do anything else but nod.

After a few days, Vegetto found the strength to get up. After he had gotten a severe scolding and a few death threats if ever he was going back to work, the Saiyan consented to rest. He spent his time eating and sleeping, and he hated that above anything. After a week of that horrible treatment, he was allowed to go back to work. One month before the harvest, he gathered everyone.  
“Listen, there is one month left. I wanted to speak about what we were going to do afterwards.”  
“What do you mean?” asked Kulilin.  
“We won’t stay here forever! We have to make sure we have enough food and I am not going to go back and forth between here and the Earth for it really is tiring! The kids are out of school and they need to go to get an education. That’s why we will have to find a way…”  
“I could construct machines to do the work in our place…” offered Bulma.  
“I was rather thinking of people.”  
“Who do you want to come here? Earthlings aren’t dupe…”  
“What if we asked extraterrestrials…” started Kulilin.  
“How? And more important, who?” asked Gohan.  
“Let’s not forget that he saved the universe when he destroyed Buu!” declared Bulma. “The entire galaxy owes Vegetto one. We could go through Kaio,” mumbled the scientist, a hand on her chin.  
“Good idea!” exclaimed Vegetto. “I’ll do it right away!”  
Vegetto frowned in an effort to concentrate.  
“Master… Master, do you hear me?”  
“I hear you loud and clear, Vegetto.” answered Kaio’s voice.  
“Could you give a message to some people that you trust, as to the Namekians, for instance?”  
“Of course I can. Give me your message.”  
“Tell them that my survival depends on their answers and that I need their help to cultivate my senzu beans.”  
“Very well. Wait a bit…”  
Vegetto felt as if the waiting was stretching forever when he heard Kaio’s voice in his ear again.  
“There, it’s done and I have some answers. As I thought, the Nameks replied positively, but there is also the Haïteku. They are a peaceful and large people living in the same corner of the universe than the Namek.”  
“I expected more… After all, I did save the universe!”  
“Yes, but the universe doesn’t know that… Besides, we can’t tell it to everybody!”  
Vegetto sighed and thanked Kaio who broke the connection. The others had followed the conversation and were puzzled. How could they get out of it?

Vegetto spent the time training. There were only two more weeks to go. Two short weeks. Of course, it was unreasonable for him to train in such conditions but if he didn’t train too hard, it’d be ok, wouldn’t it? Either way, he was going to do it all the same. In spite of Bulma’s banning and Chi-Chi reprimands, he needed to move and to exert himself. That was how he could feel alive. He never thought better than when he was training. He was working on a series of kicks when Gohan landed in front of him.  
“You shouldn’t be doing that.” He said. “What if you fainted again?”  
“I’d prefer that.” Answered Vegetto. “You have Saiyan’s blood in you, so you must know that inaction kills me. And you train whenever you can, either with Kulilin or with the kids.”  
“Maybe, but this is about your well-being!” suddenly yelled Gohan. “If anything wrong was to happen to you, what would you do?”  
“I’d say that, at least I’d have done what I enjoy.”  
Gohan was about to retort something witty but Vegetto was faster.  
“Ok, I'll stop training but only if you do something for me.”  
“What would it be?”  
“I would like to fight against you.”  
“You can’t be serious? You totally outclass me.”  
“I have never been more serious. I know what potential you have. And I just want to know its limit.”  
“You know very well that I never enjoyed fighting…”  
Vegetto burst out laughing.  
“Yes and given who your parents are, it’s rather surprising. Please, do it for me. I feel so rusty that I’m sure even Frieza could stand up to me.”  
“You’re exaggerating…” said Gohan with a smile.  
Vegetto grimaced. He knew that Gohan was strong; he felt it in his guts. If only his son had been more of a fighter… More of a brawler… He loved fighting powerful enemies! And here, he was denied his pleasure! He joined his hands and insisted:  
“Come on… In return, I won’t transform.”  
Gohan thought for a while. It wasn’t reasonable, he knew it. And yet… Even if he just wanted to live a peaceful, calm and routine life, he went on fight stance. A vague smile on his lips, he conceded:  
“Ok, we will fight. But you have to swear that at the mere sign of weakness, you’ll stop and we’ll go back home.”  
For an answer, the Saiyan rushed on his son, fists first. Gohan parried the first right punches but was caught unaware by the left uppercut that got his full force. He was thrown back three feet away and then crashed. When he got up, he noticed that he lip was badly cut.  
He is serious! he thought as he wiped it with the back of his hand. I’ll have to use all my strength to stand up to him.

Vegetto smiled then rushed at him again. That time, Gohan managed to respond and kicked him in his jaw. Vegetto shook his head, groggy. Gohan took advantage of it to go behind him and strike him hard on the head. Vegetto leaned on the ground to jump on Gohan and he threw a Genki ball that exploded on his son’s stomach. Gohan yelled in pain when the ball hit and placed a hand on his wound whereas his other hand parried a kick that was so fast that he saw nothing more than its shadow. Seeing an open space, Vegetto threw another Genki ball that hit Gohan’s chest that time. Gohan replied with a furious kamehameha that Vegetto managed to dodge by an inch. The half Saiyan took advantage of that second of respite to increase his power: a white aura surrounded him. Vegetto ferociously smiled at him. The young man rushed at his father and punched him hard in the stomach, which made Vegetto bend. The latter looked up at his son in the eyes, satisfied.  
“That’s surprising Gohan. Your strength is so amazing. The old Kai’s gift really worked really well! It’s even more impressing now that I face it than when I watched it from afar.”  
“You think? When I got this power, I felt as if I was the king of the world, I was number one against Cell… but the next moment, you had far surpassed be, so far…”  
“Come on, our fight is rather balanced.”  
“You kid me? You haven’t even transformed into a super Saiyan!”  
“But neither have you.”  
“Yes I have, but you just can’t see it. I assure you, the strength I have now, I have it thinking that I have transformed in level 3 super Saiyan. Thanks to god’s gift, my hair doesn’t turn blond.”  
“But you have never reached the super saiyan 3 level!”  
“Now I have. But without its downsides. When I used my strength against Buu, I noticed that it was way more powerful than dad when he was ssj3.”  
Vegetto had a kind of smile, his eyes blurred by nostalgia. Gohan frowned when he saw it. The next second, all hint of feelings had gone from the Saiyan’s face who said, with a more frank smile:  
“You call Son Gokû ‘dad’, yet you speak of him on the third person with me.”  
“I’m confused,” replied Gohan as he scratched his nose. “I think that we had to keep you apart, as you kept asking. My father, well… the first one, doesn’t exist anymore… Then habits die hard.”  
“On the contrary, I’m glad that you make the difference. But will you be able to think of me as your father?”  
“I do it already! It’s just that, at time, I forget…”  
“It doesn’t bother us…” answered Vegetto, changing his voice on purpose, in reference to those who still believed that there were two people in this body.  
Gohan heartily laughed at the imitation when Vegetto suddenly let out a cry and fell over.  
“Damn!” screamed Gohan as he flew towards his father. “Veg… Dad!! Are you ok?”  
“I went too far…” he weakly mumbled.  
Gohan was totally panicked. What could he do? He was about to carry his father on his back when he felt Kulilin’s, Goten’s and Trunks’s ki approaching. 18 was also with them.  
“Is there anything wrong Gohan?” asked Kulilin as he landed.  
“It was nothing, just a fight with my father…”  
“You fought?!” exclaimed Goten, a gleam of panic in his eyes. “So it really was your strength that we felt!”  
“It was just a little bit of training, nothing to worry about…” sheepishly answered Gohan.  
“Help me to carry him!” commanded 18. “We have to bring him back right away!”  
“And to think that there were only two weeks left till the first harvest…” lamented Kulilin.  
They quickly flew towards the camp. Gohan kept saying over and over in his head, blaming himself for what happened:  
It’s my fault, I didn't manage to say no. All is my fault, he got too carried away, and he was hungry. I should have known it; dad was like that too, I should have thought of it… But why did I go so far? Why did I want to push him to his limits? What did I want to show? And to say that usually I dislike fighting… Why did I take it so seriously with my father? Why…?  
He took his head into his hands. If something bad was to happen, he would never forgive himself. He wouldn’t be able to. At the camp, they were welcomed by worried screams.  
“What happened?”  
18 threw a sidelong glance at Gohan, and then said:  
“It’s ok, Bulma, it’s just a drop in blood pressure, nothing too bad. He just need to rest and to eat.”  
Vegetto moaned.  
“Nooot again…”  
“You have to think twice before going to work like a beaver!” scolded Chi-Chi as she left for the kitchen.  
Kulilin and 18 supported Vegetto to his bed.  
“Hang on, bro!” encouraged the Saiyan’s friend before leaving.  
Once everyone was out, Chi-Chi blew up.  
“Explain! What happened?! How come he is like that? Tell me!”  
Gohan lowered his head and stammered:  
“It’s… it’s my fault… We fought…”  
There was a lull in the conversation... and another... and another... A whole pack of lulls (imaginary animal) had the time to come and go until Bulma broke the pregnant silence with an elegant:  
“WHAT?”  
“I found him training and… he asked me… and I couldn’t say ‘no’.”  
Gohan felt pitiful. He was ashamed that he had agreed with it in the first place even if he knew very well that his father was ‘sick’. He just wanted to go away and meditate, as he did back in the days, with Piccolo and his father.  
Thinking of Piccolo, a wave of nostalgia overcame him. Piccolo had insisted to remain behind, just 'in case something wrong would happen’, so that someone could estimate that potential enemy’s strength and warn them if needed. After almost a year far from Earth, he noticed how much he missed it. He thought of the time when his father was still Gokû. At that time, everything was simple. His mother made sure that he made his homework and his father took him for a walk every day. At time, they even went to watch the stars. That was the time Gohan regretted the most. Gokû, due to his chronic ignorance, invented names for the different constellations as he went. Gohan found his extremely funny.  
Of course, back to that time, everything was easier. Gohan remembered with a smile that at that time, Bulma and Vegeta squabbled for no reason. On second thought, it was true that they could just fit together. And then Trunks had been their saviour. He had prevented his father from dying (well, till another death cause showed up) and so had permitted his brother to be born. Gohan sighed: he didn’t keep turning over the past that often but when he thought of it, he wanted to cry. He saw that Videl was inquiringly looking at him so Gohan smiled at his girlfriend to reassure her.  
“It’s not your fault Gohan,” she said.  
Gohan relaxed. Videl seemed to possess a strange power that enabled her to read his mind and any of his moves. None had had so much empathy with him before. Except maybe his father (apart from the fight against Cell, but that was another story). They flew away. Goten took off to follow them but Trunk caught his foot.  
“Leave them alone Goten. It’s none of our business.”  
Trunks’ very mature remark made Goten frown. There was time that he felt like a stupid boy when he was with his friend. Trunks put his hand on his shoulder and smiled:  
“Let’s go play with our funny dinosaur!”  
Goten smiled broadly and they left, followed by Marron.  
Gohan muttered, once he and Videl had landed:  
“I’m so irresponsible! If I had refused, perhaps…”  
“Listen, what is done, is done! Keeping turning over the past won’t be of any use! We should rather concentrate on the two weeks to come. They are going to be the most important for your father’s recovery!”  
“You’re right, but I can’t help blaming myself for that…”  
“Don’t think of it!” ordered Videl, authoritarian.  
The warrior looked at his girlfriend in the eyes. How could a woman made him feel so well and could comfort him so? It probably was what his father had felt with his mother. He took her hand and both went for a walk.

A week later, Vegetto’s state had considerably worsened. He had lost about eleven pounds in spite of the huge meals Bulma and Chi-Chi – who spent most of their day cooking – tried to feed him. As for the others, they keep working in the fields.

Despite his weakness, the Saiyan wanted to keep up appearances and to appear as if he was as strong as ever. But it was in vain: he hadn’t even walked fifty five yards that he suddenly fell. Desperate, Bulma prayed at her husband’s bedside. Of course, she knew god very well and she very well knew that he couldn’t help them, but she kept praying anyway, for that was the only thing she could do. Days slowly passed and Vegetto seemed to go worse with each passing day. Five days later, he didn’t even make the effort to appear to be going well. He stayed in bed all day long and ate as if his life depended on it, which, actually, was true. Hopeful, Gohan watched the shoots. At long last, after a long wait, he saw the first senzu beans. He took a handful and flew back to the camp at top speed. He landed at his father’s bedside and he noticed that his father was breathing with difficulty, his eyes closed and the face tense, as if he was suffering a thousand deaths. Yet, he placed a bean into his mouth and muttered:  
“Please dad, eat that fast! Those are the first senzu beans.”  
Vegetto had a hard time swallowing the bean, but he managed to eat five other beans. Then he opened his eyes and got up. He turned to look at the others who had gathered around him and smiled at them, which was followed with cries of joy.  
Vegetto was finally saved!!  
In the meantime, in the gods’ realm, Kibito Ka frowned.  
“It’s ok, he survived.”  
“Do you plan on calling him now?”  
“Let’s wait a bit more. Just a few more months. I need to be sure…”  
He sighed heavily and then sat down, closed his eyes and meditated again.  
Several months had passed. A huge part of the senzu planet had become the largest field our Earthling friends had ever seen. They couldn't know that it was nothing compared with some farming planets that used to be into Freeza's and Coola's former empires, but they kept the right to be impressed.  
More than twenty Namekians offered to be farmers and didn't hesitate to go live far from their home planet in order to help the plantation to grow. When Vegetto went to pay them a little visit, he could notice that they already were forty. Young ones were playing in the fields and were even removing weeds.  
Many other races came; various extraterrestrials the Kaioshins had recommended, all of them were very nice and friendly and they didn't mind seeing their family only once a month, via Vegetto transport. Sworn to secrecy, they were proud to please those who were to praise for the downfall of the Frost Demons' empire.  
Vegetto had become perfectly bearable. During meals with his family... well; his families, he ate what was in his plate with appetite as any Saiyan would, without complaining about the quantity. And then, he gulped down some senzu beans as a dessert.  
One day, he had gone to give the Kaioshins what he thought would be his last report regarding Last Hope's state.  
Everything was going well, the production was stable and there even were considerable stocks for the warrior's meals to come. The farmers were happy there and those who wanted a salary regularly came back to their family with some pounds of gold they took from a mine located in a part of the planet.  
In short, Vegetto thought he would take his leave and not see those gods again.

“Vegetto, I'd like to talk with you.” said the old Kai.  
Hadn't they just done it? Vegetto removed his fingers from his forehead.  
“Sit down,” asked the old god who already had done so whereas Kibito Kai stayed up behind him.Uh oh... That's not good... thought Vegetto  
“Vegetto, you've been alive for almost a year; and I had to come to this clear conclusion: you're no Saiyan.”  
“...”  
“If we were to classify beings in a pyramid according to their... let's say, metabolism, then down bellow, there would be bacteria, then just above them, insects, fish and some mammals, then humans of course, then the dinosaurs, and further up, or almost, Saiyans. It's... It was the species who ate the most to produce the biggest amount of energy that the universe ever knew. But you are not in this pyramid. You're... miles above its top.”  
“So?”  
“Your power is huge. It's too huge. Son Gohan, your son whose potential I upped beyond its limits, was to be the most powerful warrior there ever was. And you overpower him. By far.”  
“So?”  
“So, Vegetto, you're an universal colossal abnormality in the great story of the universe. You would pass Majin Buu or the Legendary Saiyan off as a misplaced comma! You're an entire chapter written the wrong way! In my day, that kind of being was eliminated at birth!”  
“So? You can't kill me. But I appreciate your honesty, Kai. I actually wondered how such madness, such as the Legendary Saiyan and Majin Buu could hang around in the universe. And I infer that it's due to the East Kaioshin's kindness, or rather his incompetence. Too Gokûish to kill innocents that would destroy the universe one day, I suppose.”  
Kibito Kai starred at the ground. He preferred ignore the insult because it was neither the time nor the topic.  
“That's right Vegetto... We can't do anything against you... or almost nothing... But I saw your power increasing... I saw you getting angry... and I saw the end of the universe. I saw it becoming a pile of particles the day you decided you are fed up with it... And as Kaioshin, my job is to prevent it from happening.”  
“I like laying cards on the table,” Vegetto said. “ For a long time, I have been suspecting that you'd rather see me dead, or weaker. As you invented the fusion, you're most likely the only ones who are able to hurt me. Good thing that my education, as well as a part of me, have made me keep you alive, out of safety. After all, I rather like you.”  
A drop of sweat appeared on Kibito Kai's temple.  
“But beware.” added Vegetto as he held out his finger. “You won't do anything against my being alive. Both of you are merged beings, and, as for me, you're unable to become the two beings you originally were. The three of us know that once the shock had passed, we feel like one person. If I were to feel the mere hostile action against me, you'd be dead, both of you. Remote as you are, it'd take one thousand years for anyone to notice you are not here anymore. And I'm not kidding.”  
“I know,” said the old Kaioshin. “You have nothing to fear from us. I speak to you frankly because I do know that we can find a deal. I think that you have enough honor in you to understand that you owe us a lot. We've created you, we've fed you. I even gave you my life,” he added, pointing at his halo.  
“So, what do you want in exchange?”  
“We want you to obey us.”

“Mister Kaioshin will have one or two sugars in his coffee? Do you want me to tuck you in? Do I have to ask for your approval before going to pee? I hope you're daydreaming!”  
“Stupid! We're not talking about that kind of obedience. What I want is that, if ever I come to tell you that there is a problem in your behavior, I want you to listen to me and to change. If one day I need you for something, I want you to do it. Before you do anything that could have an influence on your life or on anyone else's life, I want you to ask us first. Of course, we're not going to interfere in your life!”  
“I just heard the contrary. What kind of things do 'that could have an influence' include?”  
“Well, if you plan on founding an empire or conquering the universe, ask us first.”  
“Bulma wouldn't agree with it.”  
“If ever you want to raze a planet to the ground, ask us first.”  
“Come on... I'm done with such things.” said Vegetto with a smirk.  
“Do you agree with having us like your masters, the way Gokû considered and respected the wisdom of his master Muten Roshi?”  
“Ok, ok, I got it... if having a psychological follow-up and taking you as advisers is enough to reassure you, I can go see you from time to time. It's not asking too much to avoid a divine slaughter.”  
The two kaioshins sighed of relief.  
“You can go on, dear masters.”  
Kibito Kai was surprised. What next?  
“You've guessed correctly.” nodded the old Kaioshin. “That's right, I thought of something else: missions. I'd like to give you missions from time to time.”  
“But...” weakly said the East Kaioshin. “Kaioshin shouldn't intervene in...”  
“Well, I think it should change. The Kaioshins never had someone as powerful as Vegetto at their disposal. Vegetto, if two one-hundred-thousand-strong armies were to fight one another, arms in hand, would you steal their armament one by one before they could do any harm?”  
“Hm... well, yes. If I teleported near each of them, I could probably be done in a some minutes.”  
“That's what I'm talking about.”  
“So you want me to become a sort of peacemaker?”  
“That and other things. It's about redemption. You do know that if Vegeta was to die now, he'd go to Hell? Well, if you were to die now... I don't know, you should ask Enma.”  
“Hey, I can do some missions for you, it could even be a training of some sort.”  
A gleam appeared in the Old Kaioshin's eyes.  
“So it's decided. Vegetto, you're going to be the greatest hero of all times and the universe!”  
And so, Vegetto kept going to meet the Kaioshin rather often.  
At first, he didn't do much. The Kaioshin paved the way to decide what were the right missions. At the beginning, he had to do extremely easy things, as moving a too dangerous monster, such as other Yakons that were not in the right place. He also saved a whole town from a tsunami with his shield. But that was so easy, any member of his family could do the same thing.  
For Vegetto, The opportunity of finding a true challenge in these missions was starting to fade. But the old Kaioshin told him that for now those missions really were not hard.  
Whenever Vegetto went to meet the Kaioshins, or when he went on missions for them, he wore the clothes he got after the merging, as well as the Potalas. But when he was at home, he usually wore regular shirt and pants. He also used his new teleportation to hide the Potalas in a crevasse in the far North, where nothing lived. He had had a nightmare in which Bulma tried them on at the same time that Puar, or something. And so, his wife became a kind of big furry and hideous cat-woman...  
“Shouldn't I give these back to you?” he asked the Old Kaioshin one day. “They're very powerful things. I shouldn't keep them...”  
“Oh, but you can keep them.” he answered. “Those jewels aren't worth anything and nobody will be able to use them to fuse.”  
“I thought they could be used multiple times?”  
“They can, but not these ones. I've modified them when I have given them to Gokû.”  
“Hm... you already were paranoid and...”  
“Not at all. I modified these Potalas because these magical items work only if one of the users is a Kaioshin. These earring were originally created in order to improve the Kaioshins. And yes... to increase our life span, our intelligence and our strength. Therefore I modified these considering Gokû's DNA... So there earrings can be of use only if one of the users is Gokû. But as he doesn't exist anymore, they are of no use anymore.”  
And so, Vegetto kept the earrings.That is what Vegetto was meant to do and how he lived.  
He had two families and took care of the two of them.  
He wasn't a being as any other but had come to term with it.  
He kept training to be in shape even if a shadow clouded his horizon: he'd never find an opponent that would prove to be a challenge.  
He made his way in the universe, doing little missions for the Kaioshins.  
Perhaps you'd want to know some anecdotes that made Vegetto the greatest hero of the universe?

Perhaps you'd like to read the adventures that gave him more powers and extended knowledge?  
Perhaps you'd like to know how he'll take care of his two little students and how they would grow?  
Well, all will be published in good time :)


End file.
